Background: Indirect inguinal hernia (IH) is the most common type of hernia. Routine contralateral inguinal exploration, without clinical evidence of a hernia is still controversial especially in children. The purpose of our study was to determine incidence of contralateral IH.
Methods: This is a prospective study of 301 patients during a one-year period. History of groin mass, positive findings, demonstrable hernia, or communicating hydrocele were our criteria for diagnosis.
Results: Our study includes 301 infants and children, 270 (89.7%) males and 31 (10.3%) females with mean age of two years and 40.9% under six months. In the follow-up period, we found 33 new IH in our patients. 23 (12%) of 196 patients less than two years old underwent contralateral herniorrhaphy in the follow-up period (P = 0.02). Six patients of 30 premature children underwent contralateral herniorrhaphy (P = 0.03).
Conclusion: The incidence of contralateral hernia is approximately 10% and in our study it is approximately 1.7%. There is a significant difference between the occurrence of contralateral hernia in preterm compared with term infants (P = 0.03). We think that the incidence is still too low to recommend routine contralateral exploration.