Clinical, surgical characteristics and long-term outcomes of lumbar hernia.

Background/aim: Lumbar hernia is caused by a defect in the abdominal wall. Due to its rarity, there is no established consensus on optimal treatment for lumbar hernia yet. Thus, we here investigated the clinical, surgical characteristics and outcomes of lumbar hernia by collecting 28 such patients from our hospital.

Methods: Patients diagnosed with lumbar hernia from our institution between April 2011 and August 2020 were retrospectively collected in this study. Demographics, clinical characteristics and surgical information were recorded.

Results: A consecutive series of 28 patients with lumbar hernia were retrospectively collected, including 13 males (46%) and 15 females (54%). The ages of the patients ranged from 5 to 79 years (median: 55 years), with a mean age of 55.6 ± 14.9 years. A total of 7 cases had a history of previous lumbar trauma or surgery. There were 11 (39%), 15 (54%) and 2 (7.1%) cases had right, left and bilateral lumbar hernia, respectively. Superior and inferior lumbar hernia were found in 25 (89%) and 3 (11%) patients. General anesthesia was adopted in 16 cases (group A), whereas 12 patients received local anesthesia (group B). Patients in the group B had a shorter hospital stay than that of the group A (3.5 ± 1.3 days vs. 7.1 ± 3.2 days, p = 0.001), as well as total hospitalization expenses between the two groups (2989 ± 1269 dollars vs. 1299 ± 229 dollars, p < 0.001). With a median follow-up duration of 45.9 months (range: 1-113 months), only 1 (3%) lumbar hernias recurred for the entire cohort.

Conclusions: Lumbar hernia is a relatively rare entity, and inferior lumbar hernia is rarer. It is feasible to repair lumbar hernia under local anesthesia.