Do transversus abdominis plane (TAP) blocks improve pain after laparoscopic bilateral inguinal hernia repairs beyond the recovery unit? A randomized control trial.

Purpose: While surgeons agree that perioperative field blocks should be performed for open inguinal hernia surgery, there lacks consensus in the minimally invasive context. Prior small-scale randomized trials study pain scores only up to 24 h postoperatively. Thus, we sought to investigate the analgesic benefits of a bupivacaine transversus abdominis plane (TAP) block in the first 4 postoperative days.