[Inguinal hernia in children]

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.