Challenges of Inguinal Hernia Surgery in Ghana

Abstract

Background: In Ghana inguinal herniais a very common cause of considerable morbidity and significant mortality especially in rural communities.Objective : To perform a brief review of the published data on the epidemiology of and the surgical output oninguinal hernia in Ghana.Method : In this review the author presents data from a series of recent publications derived from his work on inguinal hernia in Ghana. Other articles that also have data on inguinal hernia surgery in Ghana were selected in support of or to compliment the publications in possession of the author. The search terms used to select these articles were : inguinal hernia in Ghana, groin herniaepidemiology in Ghana, hernia repair, strangulated inguinal hernia, inguinal hernia surgery output in Ghana in Medline, Pubmed and Embase. All journal articles containing information on inguinal hernia epidemiology and surgical output betweenJanuary 1, 2000 and November 30, 2015 were selected and carefully analyzed for data on inguinal herniaprevalence and repair or operations.Results : Literature on inguinal hernia surgery in Ghana is mostly clinical reports based on analysis of hospital based patients. Two sources of population based data wereavailable but were nearly four decades apart. Based on tis data inguinal henria is veryprevalent in Ghana. However, surgical correction rates are very low leaving many men with longstanding untreated inguinal hernias.Conclusion : Inguinal hernia is very prevalent in Ghanaian men in both urban and rural communities. Access to hernia repair surgery is limited by patient education, health care costs and health facilitycapacity. Intervention is needed to build the capacity for increased hernia repair.