[Congenital inguinal hernia in boys. Pathophysiology, therapeutic possibilities, new surgical method (Melker method)]

An account is given in this paper of the anatomic and physiological peculiarities of congenital inguinal hernia in male children. Particular reference is made to testicular disorders which usually result from even slightest traumatisation of the spermatic cord. A critical appraisal is made of parameters used in the past for assessment of surgical results. Removal of hernial sac with or without posterior pararectal repair was applied in the author's hospital to 185 boys with hernia of whom 87.5 per cent underwent follow-up checks. Minor testicular disorders were recordable from only 4.7 per cent of them. The author has invented a new surgical method to cope with congenital hernia of boys (Melker's method). Due consideration is given, in that approach, to the anatomic and physiological peculiarities involved, and the intervention is widely non-invasive to the spermatic cord. Reported in this paper are the results obtained from 67 cases of whom 97 per cent had undergone follow-up checks. Follow-up intervals were between one and three and a half years during which period no case of atrophy, dystrophy or dystopia of testicles was recorded at all.