Hernias - Presentation and Management

The prognosis depends on the type and size of hernia as well as on the ability to reduce risk factors associated with the development of hernias.

Older age, longer duration of hernia, and longer duration of irreducibility are thought to be risk factors for acute complications such as Strangulation and Intestinal obstruction. About 5% of primary inguinal hernia repairs are undertaken as emergencies.

Abdominal hernias usually do not recur in children. They do reappear, however, in about 10 percent of adults. Surgery is considered the only cure. Surgery for recurrance of hernia is less successful than the first surgery.

If diagnosed early in childhood, the prognosis for children who have had a surgically repaired inguinal hernia is excellent. Occasionally there are complications associated with inguinal hernias including death, but these are rare, occurring most often in children who were diagnosed later in childhood or whose hernias were strangulated.