title: [Inguinal hernia in children].
abstract: The authors report 611 cases of inguinal hernias of childhood operated between 1967 and 1985, which represent 28% of operations performed in all children in the same period. The mean age of patients was 33 +/- 4.1 months and the ratio M:F = 5.43:1. The right side was the most frequently affected (64.64%) with a bilaterality of 14.89%. The incarceration, observed at the rate of 13.23%, needed the surgical treatment in urgency in the 35.63% of the cases. A relapsing hernia appeared only two times (0.45%) and the incidence of contralateral metacronous hernias was 7.99%. They perform herniorrhaphy in the only symptomatic side without preoperative herniorrhaphy and operate on the silent contralateral side only when there a hernia will became symptomatic, as they think that herniorrhaphy and bilateral inguinal exploration cause a high number of unnecessary, sometimes harmful operations.
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004630:Emergencies; D005260:Female; D006552:Hernia, Inguinal / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery*; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D012086:Reoperation
vernacular_title: La hernie inguinale chez les enfants.