Inguinal hernia and occurrence on the other side: a prospective analysis in Iran.
BACKGROUND
Indirect inguinal hernia (IH) is the most common type of hernia. Routine contralateral inguinal exploration, without clinical evidence of a hernia is still controversial especially in children. The purpose of our study was to determine incidence of contralateral IH.


METHODS
This is a prospective study of 301 patients during a one-year period. History of groin mass, positive findings, demonstrable hernia, or communicating hydrocele were our criteria for diagnosis.


RESULTS
Our study includes 301 infants and children, 270 (89.7%) males and 31 (10.3%) females with mean age of two years and 40.9% under six months. In the follow-up period, we found 33 new IH in our patients. 23 (12%) of 196 patients less than two years old underwent contralateral herniorrhaphy in the follow-up period (P = 0.02). Six patients of 30 premature children underwent contralateral herniorrhaphy (P = 0.03).


CONCLUSIONS
The incidence of contralateral hernia is approximately 10% and in our study it is approximately 1.7%. There is a significant difference between the occurrence of contralateral hernia in preterm compared with term infants (P = 0.03). We think that the incidence is still too low to recommend routine contralateral exploration.
Kalantari
M
M
Department of Paediatric Surgery, Children's Medical Centre, School of Medicine, Medical Sciences/University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran.
Shirgir
S
S
Ahmadi
J
J
Zanjani
A
A
Soltani
A E
AE
D017677:Age Distribution; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006552:Hernia, Inguinal / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology*; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007492:Iran / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D011446:Prospective Studies; D017678:Sex Distribution