The value of herniography in the diagnosis of unexplained groin pain

Herniographies were performed on 106 outpatients with obscure groin pain. A total of 39 hernias were found in 38 patients (36%) and the 46 patients either operated on (40 patients) or who had undergone laparoscopy (six patients), included one false positive and two false negative ones. All three cases were inpatients who had earlier undergone surgery for inguinal hernia 27% of the patients with a normal clinical finding (19/70), 67% of those with previous inguinal herniotomy (8/12) and 50% of those with symptoms suggestive of hernia (12/24) had diagnostic findings on herniography. Thirteen out of the 48 women (27%) and 25 of the 58 men (43%) had positive finding at herniography. The valve of herniography was that 56 patients were spared subsequent surgical exploration because of normal herniographic finding. Our results indicate that herniography is a useful tool for the examination of patients with unexplained groin pain.