History

Hernias have been known since ancient times, reference to bandaging of hernias is given in the Ebers papyrus. This Egyptian papyrus is believed to be based upon the book of Thoth, which may have been written in 3000 BC.

The history of hernia surgery may be subdivided into;

• Ancients
• Barber Surgeons
• Surgeon Anatomists
• Modern Era

3000 BC

Book of Thoth, Egyptian manuscript on medicine (missing!)

1700 BC

Hammurabi of Babylon describes inguinal hernia

1600 BC

Ebers papyrus

25 AD

Celsus, the greek describes trans-illumination to distinguish hydrocoele and hernia. Advocates removal of sack and testes

125

Heliodorus, recommends twisting off the neck of the sack and preservation of the testes

200

Galen, came up with the concept of `rupture' of the peritoneum as a cause of hernia. He came to this conclusion by the process of thought and without any dissection.

476

Fall of Rome with interdiction of surgery by the Christian and Muslim churches.

1412

Gerald of Metz; Fil d'or, gold wire inserted around the neck of the hernia to prevent recurrence

1556

Franco of Berne; Divide neck of hernia in strangulation

1578

Adrian van der Spieghel born; he described the Spigelian hernia

1700

Littre describes a Meckel's diverticulum in a hernial sack

1724

Heister describes resection of gangrenous intestine

1757

Sir Percival Pott describes the pathophysiology of strangulation

1785

Richter describes partial enterocoele

1804

Sir Astley Cooper publishes his book on hernia `A treatise on Hernia'; he describes Cooper's ligament and the transversalis fascia

1814

Antonio Scarpa describes Scarpa's fascia

1816

Hesselbach describes Hesselbach's triangle

1846

Discovery of anaesthsia

1865

Discovery of anti-sepsis, by Lister in Glasgow

1876

Thomas Annandale (1838-1907), succeeded Lister as professor of Surgery in Edinburgh. Pioneers the pre-peritoneal approach to groin hernia repair

1884

Eduordo Bassini, in Italy, develops his repair. There is some argument about whether Bassini or H O. Marcy in Boston was the first.

1889

William Halstead (1852-1922) recommends the Halstead radical cure for hernia

x

Georg Lothiessen (1868-1935), in Vienna performs the Cooper ligament repair

1909

J. H. Nichol in Glasgow pioneers day case treatment of hernias

1953

Earl Shouldice, recommends the Shouldice repair

1970

Lictenstein recommends the tension free repair with Mesh

1973

Report on results of 18,400 repairs using the Shouldice repair

1982

Ger performs laparoscopic closure of the deep ring

1990

Franklin demonstrates the TAPP procedure

1993

McKernan demonstrates the TEP repair

1997

E U Hernia Trialists Collaboration set up; funded by E U Biomed company

1999

Randomised controlled trail of laparoscopic vs open repair [MRC99]

2001

Randomised controlled trials on benefit of prophylactic antibiotics [YAD⁺01]

2002

Randomised controlled trials on mesh versus no mesh repair [VvdTL⁺02,GE02]