Back to Journals » Open Access Surgery » Volume 3

Metachronous contralateral pediatric inguinal hernia

Authors Nataraja R, Mahomed A

Published 26 August 2010 Volume 2010:3 Pages 87—90

DOI https://doi.org/10.2147/OAS.S11907

Review by Single anonymous peer review

Peer reviewer comments 3



RM Nataraja, AA Mahomed

Department of Pediatric Surgery and Urology, Royal Alexandra Children’s Hospital, Brighton, UK

Date of preparation: April 20, 2010.

Conflict of interest: None declared

Clinical question: Should routine contralateral inguinal region exploration be done to prevent a metachronous contralateral pediatric inguinal hernia?

Results: The incidence of a metachronous contralateral pediatric inguinal hernia is 6.4% in both genders. Sixteen contralateral groin explorations need to be done to prevent one metachronous contralateral pediatric inguinal hernia.

Implementation:
• Routine exploration of the asymptomatic contralateral groin is not recommended.
• Infants less than one month old with an inguinal hernia should receive immediate specialist referral.
• Older infants and children with a reducible hernia should be referred to the pediatric surgical outpatient department.
• Pediatric patients with an original left-sided hernia or who were less than six months old at the time of the first hernia repair should receive regular follow-up in the primary health care setting.

Keywords: metachronous contralateral pediatric inguinal hernia, exploration

Creative Commons License © 2010 The Author(s). This work is published and licensed by Dove Medical Press Limited. The full terms of this license are available at https://www.dovepress.com/terms.php and incorporate the Creative Commons Attribution - Non Commercial (unported, v3.0) License. By accessing the work you hereby accept the Terms. Non-commercial uses of the work are permitted without any further permission from Dove Medical Press Limited, provided the work is properly attributed. For permission for commercial use of this work, please see paragraphs 4.2 and 5 of our Terms.