User:Mr. Ibrahem/Inguinal hernia
Medical condition / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
An inguinal hernia is a hernia (protrusion) of abdominal-cavity contents through the inguinal canal.[1] Symptoms are present in about 66% of affected people.[1] This may include pain or discomfort especially with coughing, exercise, or bowel movements.[1] Often it gets worse throughout the day and improves when lying down.[1] A bulging area may occur that becomes larger when bearing down.[1] Inguinal hernias occur more often on the right than left side.[1] The main concern is strangulation, where the blood supply to part of the intestine is blocked.[1] This usually produces severe pain and tenderness of the area.[1]
Inguinal hernia | |
---|---|
Diagram of an indirect, scrotal inguinal hernia (median view from the left). | |
Pronunciation | |
Specialty | General surgery |
Symptoms | Pain, bulging in the groin[1] |
Complications | Strangulation[1] |
Usual onset | < 1 year old, > 50 years old[2] |
Risk factors | Family history, smoking, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, obesity, pregnancy, peritoneal dialysis, collagen vascular disease, previous open appendectomy[1][2][3] |
Diagnostic method | Based on symptoms, medical imaging[1] |
Treatment | Conservative, surgery[1] |
Frequency | 27% (males), 3% (females)[1] |
Deaths | 59,800 (2015)[4] |
Risk factors include smoking, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, obesity, pregnancy, peritoneal dialysis, collagen vascular disease, and previous open appendectomy.[1][2] Hernias are partly genetic and occur more often in certain families.[1] It is unclear if inguinal hernias are associated with heavy lifting.[1] Hernias can often be diagnosed based on symptoms.[1] Occasionally medical imaging is used to confirm the diagnosis or rule out other possible causes.[1]
Groin hernias that do not cause symptoms in males do not need to be repaired.[1] Repair, however, is generally recommended in females due to the higher rate of femoral hernias which have more complications.[1] If strangulation occurs immediate surgery is required.[1] Repair may be done by open surgery or laparoscopic surgery.[1] Open surgery has the benefit of possibly being done under local anesthesia rather than general anesthesia.[1] Laparoscopic surgery generally has less pain following the procedure.[1][5]
In 2015 inguinal, femoral, and abdominal hernias affected about 18.5 million people.[6] About 27% of males and 3% of females develop a groin hernia at some time in their life.[1] Groin hernias occur most often before the age of one and after the age of fifty.[2] Globally, inguinal, femoral and abdominal hernias resulted in 60,000 deaths in 2015 and 55,000 in 1990.[4][7]