Different anesthetic techniques have been proposed for carrying out Inguinal hernia repair,
including local anesthesia, regional and general. There are no recent data on the application
of a validated questionnaire to assess which anesthetic technique, local infiltration under
general anesthesia or spinal anesthesia, would provide better quality of recovery in the
opinion of the patients undergoing inguinal hernia repair. The aim of the study is to perform
a randomized clinical trial comparing the quality of recovery (QoR-40) after local
infiltration under general anesthesia via laryngeal mask (LMA) or spinal anesthesia for
unilateral inguinal hernia repair. METHODS – Seventy patients aged 18 to 65 years old, who
were scheduled to undergo unilateral inguinal hernia repair at Santa Lucinda Hospital will be
enrolled in the study. The anesthesia will be performed according to the following sequence:
L Group – intravenous (I.V.) propofol and alfentanyl, followed by LMA positioning. The
anesthesia will be maintained by propofol. For local anesthesia, approximately 50 ml of 0.5%
ropivacaine will be infiltrated along the line of incision in the subcutaneous plane,
followed by peripheral nerve block technique (e.g., ilioinguinal-hypogastric nerve block) and
local wound infiltration at the fascial level. S Group – spinal puncture followed by
intrathecal 15 mg of 0.5% hyperbaric bupivacaine injection and sedation with propofol by
continuous infusion. Pain will be assessed every 15 minutes at Post-anesthesia Care Unit
(PACU) using a 0-10 numeric pain rating scale and I.V. morphine will be administered to
maintain the pain score below 4. The QoR-40 will be administered by a blind investigator 24
hours after surgery.