Clinical observation between chronic sustained cough with asthma and childhood inguinal hernia

Inguinal hernias are common and cause problems for the health services. Several factors are thought to influence their development. Patients under 16 years old who had received hernioplasty at National Taiwan University Hospital were enrolled in a study to analyze the correlation between preceding recurrent cough with asthma and later hernia development. Patients aged 5 and 6 years old (when admitted for hernioplasty in 2000) were particularly focused. This entailed further analysis of their birth history, family atopic history, specific allergic diseases (allergic rhinitis, atopic dermatitis, asthma), hernia type (direct or indirect), the onset of chronic cough and asthma. One hundred and sixty three patients (2.66%) from a total hernioplasty population of 6130 were found to have had preceding asthma with recurrent cough before having the hernioplasty intervention. One hundred twenty-five patients were aged 5 to 6 years old, among whom 8 (6.4%) patients were found to have asthma, and 20 (16%) patients were noted to have recurrent sustained cough. All the hernia types were indirect and were received with high suture ligation. In conclusion, the incidence of asthma was not significantly higher in the group of individuals receiving hernioplasty. However, a higher incidence of recurrent sustained cough was noted, which could be a relatively important factor for the hernia development. Further reliable cough measurements would be needed to evaluate the severity of recurrent sustained cough as the potential risk for the hernia development.