Metachronous contralateral pediatric inguinal hernia

Evidence to Practice

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Authors: RM Nataraja, AA Mahomed

Published Date August 2010 Volume 2010:3 Pages 87 - 90

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.2147/OAS.S11907

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