Acute abdominal wall hernias in infants and children

Abstract

An analysis of abdominal wall hernias presenting acutely to the emergency department of the Children's Hospital, Birmingham, during a three year period is presented. Incarceration of hernias is often secondary to acute respiratory or gastrointestinal infections and other disease. The use of gallows traction for initial conservative reduction of inguinal hernias has been found satisfactory in 90 per cent of patients under five years of age. True strangulation occurs rarely and is often impossible to differentiate clinically from simple incarceration; however, such a hernia cannot be reduced with this method. Other symptoms of inguinal and umbilical hernias are tabulated and the case histories of premature infants described briefly.