PURPOSE: To analyse in respect to thickness, constitutive elements and total collagen quantification, samples of transversalis fascia from direct inguinal hernia patients, between twenty and sixty years of age and colected at the moment of laparoscopic repair, compairing with samples of the same tissue, obtained from corpse. METHODS: We collected 23 samples from patients and 22 samples from corpse. The samples were stained for Hematoxiline-eosine and Sirius-Red. The video captured images were analysed by computer-assisted videomorphometric techenic. RESULTS: We noticed the thickness of normal transversalis fascia to be 4.5 milimetres. Otherwise, the transversalis fascia from patients were 58 % thinner (p< 0.001). There was no evidence of any senile degenerative process involving the collagen fibres. The Dense connective tissue was the principal constitutive element in both groups being responsable for 75 % of control's fascia and 49 % for the hernia one (p< 0.001). The collagen's mean percentual area in the sample field from patients were half the control's area (p< 0.001), stablishing that there are less collagen in the hernia's wall. CONCLUSION: The direct inguinal hernia patients have less collagen in transversalis fascia either absolutely or relatively to other constitutional elements.
Collagen; Hernia, inguinal; Transversalis fascia; Videolaparoscopy
