Abstract
Objective: The objective of the present study was to verify whether obesity is associated with the occurrence of inguinal hernia.
 This is a cross-sectional study carried out in a tertiary hospital, including 84 patients, with clinical diagnosis of inguinal hernia, who underwent hernia mesh repair during a 6-month period (January 2021 to June 2021). Demographic, anthropometric and diagnostic data for inguinal hernia were taken from the patients' medical records.
 The Chi-square test was used to calculate the significance of association.
 Results: A total of 84 patients were included in this study. The age of patients varied between 39 - 75 years, averaging 54.8 years.
 The study showed an association between BMI and two factors, namely: Age (P = .023) and size of the defect (P = .005). However, hernia type (P = .797) and its content (P = 0.061) did not show such an association.
 Conclusion: In conclusion, these results may be a useful guide for future studies about the relationship between BMI and hernia and may provide foundation for better understanding of the pathophysiology of hernia is obese.
Highlights
Hernia is the bulging of part of the contents of the abdominal cavity through a weakness in the abdominal wall
Since obesity is undeniably associated with increased intra-abdominal pressure, it is often assumed as an important risk factor for increase in incidence of inguinal hernia
This is a tertiary hospital based cross-sectional study conducted over 6 months in Saveetha Medical College and Hospital, Chennai. 84 patients clinically diagnosed and radiologically confirmed as inguinal hernia were enrolled in the study
Summary
Hernia is the bulging of part of the contents of the abdominal cavity through a weakness in the abdominal wall. It is estimated that 1 in every 3 men will require a hernia repair, at some point in his life [1]. Correct incidence of Inguinal hernias in India is a difficult estimate, but about 500,000 cases come to medical attention each year [2], nearly 800,000 are repaired each year in the USA [1], and 70 000 inguinal hernia repairs (62 969 primary, 4939 recurrent) were done in England alone, requiring more than 100 000 hospital bed days [3]. Since obesity is undeniably associated with increased intra-abdominal pressure, it is often assumed as an important risk factor for increase in incidence of inguinal hernia. In this study we've tried to gain more insight into this relationship, and to examine the impact of BMI on incidence rates of Inguinal hernia in a semi- urban south indian population
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