Introduction: The inguinal hernia surgery is common in the pediatric population although laparoscopic management today, is not considered the standard technique. The aim of this study is to review the results of our study and evaluate the contralateral side in patients with unilateral hernia.
Material and methods: Retrospective study of laparoscopic herniorraphy at our hospital since the beginning of the art in 1999 with a total of 348 patients. The indications of laparoscopy have been the availability of umbilical hernia associated, doubt diagnosis, recurrence of open surgery, bilateral tumor and casual diagnosis. We analyzed the following parameters: sex, age, weight, associated diagnosis, intra and postoperative complications, recurrence and follow-up.
Results: 474 hernias were repaired laparoscopically in 348 patients. A predominance of males against females (30%). In 37 patients (11%) the diagnosis was made during another operation. 39 patients with recidive open surgery were operated by laparoscopy. We had only 2% intraoperative complications and 2% of recurrences. The follow-up period is 10 years.
Conclusions: Laparoscopic herniorraphy may be a routine procedure with results comparable to open surgery. Laparoscopy offers a good overview of the anatomy, easily identifying the defect, with a technique increasingly used in the field of pediatric surgery.