Operative complications of hernia repair in childhood.

In a training center, 1,131 inguinal hernias were repaired in 1,000 consecutive patients in 6 years. The documents of these patients were reviewed retrospectively for surgical complications. A total of 38 complications were encountered in 35 patients, including wound infection (1.9%), recurrence (0.9%), tethered testis (0.3%), bladder injury (0.3%), was deferens injury (0.2%), iatrogenic orchiectomy (0.1%), and postoperative death. Most of them occurred in the early years of the clinic, and nearly one-half were technical in nature. Careful training, stressing the importance of gentle handling of the tissues, and meticulous dissection with emphasis on learning groin anatomy should reduce the incidence of such complications.