Outcomes of pediatric inguinal hernia repair with or without opening the external oblique muscle fascia

BACKGROUND: Considering that complications and outcome of each method of pediatric inguinal hernia repair are one of the determinants for pediatric surgeons for selection of the appropriate surgical technique, we compared the early and late complications of two inguinal repair techniques, with and without opening the external oblique muscle fascia. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In this double-blind clinical trial study, boy children aged 1-month to 6 years with diagnosed inguinal hernia were included and randomly allocated into two groups for undergoing two types of hernia repair techniques, with and without opening the external oblique muscle fascia. Surgical complications such as fever, scrotal edema and hematoma, and wound infections classified as early complication and recurrence, testis atrophy and sensory impairment of inguinal area classified as late complications. The rates of mentioned early and late complications were compared in the two interventional groups. RESULTS: In this study, 66 patients were selected and allocated to the two interventional groups. The prevalence of early and late complications in two studied groups were not different significantly in two interventional groups (P > 0.05). Operation time was significantly shorter in inguinal repair techniques without opening the external oblique muscle fascia than the other studied technique (P = 0.001). CONCLUSION: The findings of our study indicated that though early and late complications of the two repair methods were similar, but the time of procedure was shorter in herniotomy without opening the external oblique muscle, which considered the superiority of this method than inguinal hernia repair with opening the external oblique muscle.