Appendiceal mucocele is a rare disease. Sometimes it is discovered accidentally and sometimes it resembles acute appendicitis. Correct diagnosis before surgery is very important for the selection of adequate surgical treatment to avoid intraoperative and postoperative complications. Ultrasonography, and particularly computed tomography, should be used extensively for this purpose. If mucocele is treated incorrectly pseudomyxoma peritonei, which is characterized by malignant process, may develop. We present a case of a 54-year-old man who was admitted to the emergency department with the signs of acute appendicitis. Open surgery was performed. At the time of surgery, a cystic mass of the appendix with dimensions 7 3 4 33 cm, with inflamed walls, but without perforation was discovered in the right iliac fossa. No discharge was found in the peritoneal cavity. Diagnosis of mucocele was suspected. Only appendectomy was performed because no pathologic process was found in the base of the appendix and lymph nodes were not increased in size. Hystopathologic diagnosis was mucinous cystadenoma. After 2 years, the patient is feeling well.

The aim of our study was the comparative analysis of the results of two surgical methods: tension-free repair by the Lichtenstein technique and laparoscopic transabdominal preperitoneal (TAPP) repair. In total 52 patients with recurrent inguinal hernia were randomly assigned to the two groups: Lichtenstein (28 patients) and TAPP (24 patients). Comparisons between these groups were done by several preoperative, intraoperative, and postoperative factors. For postoperative factors both short-term and long-term results were considered. Average operation time for Lichtenstein group was 59.6 ± 9.9 minutes, compared with 64.4 ± 8.4 minutes for TAPP patients (P = 0.068). In TAPP patients there was less pain in the postoperative period (P = 0.002) and fewer sick-leave days (13.4 ± 1.7 versus 17.5 ± 2.6 days; P , 0.001) and, correspondingly, faster recovery. In the Lichtenstein group a total of 4 postoperative complications (infection, hematoma, seroma, urinary retention) were observed, compared with 8 in the TAPP group (P = 0.19). Statistically significant difference was only by urinary retention (0 for Lichtenstein, 4 for TAPP; P = 0.039). There were no cases of hernia recurrence observed during the followup. Chronic pain developed in 5 patients from the Lichtenstein group (17.9%) and 2