Shouldice Hospital Outcome Study

Inclusion Criteria:

• Provide signed and dated informed consent form.
• Willing to comply with all study procedures and be available for the duration of thestudy (patients have fixed address, access to phone, email, internet, and/or acomputer)
• Male or female, aged 18 to 90 years.
• Subjects having surgery on a primary unilateral inguinal hernia
• In good general health as evidenced by medical history
• Capable of speaking and reading English sufficiently well to complete thequestionnaires

Exclusion Criteria:

• Surgery is deemed an emergency procedure (any obstruction, incarceration orirreducible hernias).
• Other abdominal hernias being operated on at the same time or surgery is plannedduring the follow-up period (incisional and umbilical hernias)
• If hernia recurs within the study period and there is a reoperation within the year
• BMI >40kg/m2
• Patients unable to understand English, written and spoken
• Patients with collagen or connective tissue disorders
• Local (site of surgery) or systemic infection
• Any known diseases that impair nerve function
• Patients who end up getting a mesh repair during surgery
• Impairment of cognitive function (e.g. dementia)
• Pregnancy or lactation
• Anything that would place the individual at increased risk or preclude theindividual's full compliance with or completion of the study.