Video narration
How do three operations repair the same weak spot in your groin? The inguinal canal is a passage through the layered abdominal wall. If that wall is weak, abdominal contents can bulge through, often more visibly when you strain. Straining can reveal it, though pressure alone does not explain why a hernia forms. Diagnosis starts with your history and examination of the groin; imaging helps when the diagnosis is uncertain. Here, the wall itself guides repair. The key difference is not the weak spot, but which side of the wall the surgeon approaches. With TAPP, the surgeon enters the abdomen to place mesh behind the wall, in the preperitoneal plane. With TEP, the surgeon reaches that same plane without entering the abdominal cavity. Lichtenstein is an open repair, placing mesh from the front. So where is the weak spot reinforced? TAPP and TEP from behind; Lichtenstein from the front.