Ref (type)	Population	Outcome, Interventions	Results and statistical analysis	Effect size	Favours
Recurrence
Systematic review	2259 people 16 RCTs in this analysis	Recurrence with TAPP laparoscopic repair with open suture repair	OR 0.45 95% CI 0.28 to 0.72 Data analysed using fixed-effects model; see further information on studies for full details The review reported a lack of consistency in results for recurrence among the included RCTs (see further information on studies)	Moderate effect size	TAPP laparoscopic repair
RCT	176 people, 152 unilateral and 24 bilateral inguinal hernias	Recurrence rate 2/86 (2%) with TAPP laparoscopic repair 1/90 (1%) with open suture repair	Reported as not significant P value not reported The RCT may have lacked power to detect a clinically important difference		Not significant
RCT	1042 people with primary unilateral inguinal hernia	Recurrence 3 months 1.2% with TAPP laparoscopic repair 0.6% with open suture repair	P = 0.339		Not significant
RCT	People with primary unilateral inguinal hernia Further report of reference	Cumulative recurrence rates at 5 years 30/454 (6.6%) with TAPP laparoscopic repair 31/466 (6.7%) with open suture repair	P >0.9		Not significant
RCT 3-armed trial	280 men with primary inguinal hernia	Number of recurrences 4 years 1 with TAPP laparoscopic repair 6 with open suture repair	P = 0.055 for TAPP laparoscopic repair versus open suture repair		Not significant