The demographic profile and the management of infantile inguinal hernia: a 3-year’s review

Abstract

Background: Inguinal hernia in neonates and infants including children is as a result of failure of processes vaginalis to close. Once diagnosed, it should be promptly repaired on elective basis to prevent possible risk of bowel incarceration. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the clinical profile, management, and outcome of infantile inguinal hernia. Methods: Aim of this prospective clinical study was to clinically evaluate the infants with clinical diagnosis of inguinal hernia admitted in our tertiary child care institute from January 2014 to December 2017 over a period of three years. The design of this study was to assess the clinical profile, management and outcome of infantile inguinal hernia. Study was conducted in a tertiary care neonatal and paediatric referral centre in southern India. Infants less than 1 year including neonates were selected for this study on the basis of inclusion and exclusion criteria. The maximum follow-up period was 5 years. Results: A total of 118 infants admitted with clinical diagnosis of inguinal hernia were included in the present study. They were grouped as per their clinical diagnosis and age on admission into two groups; 0 to 6 months as group I and more than 6 months to 12 months as group II. All of them underwent surgical repair as soon as diagnosed. Overall survival rate was 100%. There was no operative mortality 0/118 (0%). Rate of recurrence was 0.034% without any surgical site infections. Conclusion: Early surgical intervention in the form of inguinal herniotomy is the most appropriate management of inguinal hernia in infants including the neonates as soon as diagnosed on elective basis.