Inguinal herniotomy in children.

This study is a six year retrospective review of 397 herniotomies in 380 children up to the age of 10 years. 373 (98.2%) were boys and only 7 (1.8%) were girls. 75 (19.7%) children presented with incarceration but only 28 required emergency operation while preoperative reduction was achieved in the remaining 47 children. The hernia recurrence rate was low (1.76%), all the 7 recurred cases were initially operated either by a surgeon undergoing training or a specialist with no specific paediatric surgery training. There were no deaths and though complications recorded were minimal, the exact complication rate is difficult to establish due to the limitations of a retrospective study. It is, however, stressed that herniotomy should not be delayed until complications develop. The results of this review are comparable to similar studies done in Britain probably because the hernitomies were performed in a specialised unit with careful training and supervision of junior surgeons.