Incidence of Inguinal Herniotomy in Children. A Prospective Study at a Regional Hospital

Abstract

Background: Inguinal hernia is one of the most common surgical conditions in children. Herniotomy is the surgery performed for a pediatric hernia and hydrocele. This study was done to know the demography and outcome of pediatric herniotomy at our center.

Materials and methods: A prospective study on patients who underwent herniotomy from 10th May 2016 to 9th May 2017 was conducted at the Department of Surgery, Western Regional Hospital.

Results: During this study 112 patients underwent herniotomy out of which 98 were boys while 14 were girls. 59(52.67%) patients had unilateral hernia, 40(35.71%) had unilateral hydrocele and 13(11.6%) had bilateral condition among which 8 had hernia and 5 had hydrocele. 69(61.6%) patients presented with a right-sided, 30(26.7%) with left-sided, and 13(11.6%) with bilateral conditions. 13 patients (11.6%) presented at the emergency with irreducible hernia. Two among the patient who underwent emergency herniotomy developed postoperative wound infection and one among the elective surgery had recurrence.

Conclusion: Pediatric inguinal hernias and hydroceles are often difficult to diagnose clinically. Herniotomy is often performed by junior consultants who have no specific training in pediatric surgery. Timely planning of surgery is required to minimize preoperative complications.