Objective: Inguinal ovarian hernias are common in young girls. Many articles in medical literature recommend early surgery for inguinal ovarian hernia because of the risk of torsion of the prolapsed ovary. However, since many irreducible herniated ovaries in newborn infants and during early infancy undergo spontaneous reduction by the age of 9 months, the policy at our institute is to obtain informed consent from the patient's family and then wait to perform surgery until after 9 months of age. In the present study, we assessed the indications for surgery for inguinal ovarian hernia in newborn infants and during early infancy.
Methods: Between 2003 and 2011, a total of 673 girls with inguinal hernias (age at the time of onset of symptoms: mean, 42.5 months; median, 39 months) were brought to our outpatient clinic for consultation. We reviewed their age at the time of the onset of hernia symptoms and their age at the time of surgery, their history of surgery, and their history of inguinal ovarian hernia using information obtained from their medical records.
Results: Among the 673 outpatients, 71 patients (mean/median age at the time of onset of symptoms: 11.2/1.5 months) were diagnosed as having an inguinal ovarian hernia at the time of diagnosis. Among these patients, surgery was performed for 58 patients (mean/median age at the time of surgery: 21.3/11 months). Of these patients, the ovary had already spontaneously reduced into the abdomen in 35 cases (mean/median age at the time of surgery: 24.1/12months), whereas the ovaries were on the wall of the hernia sac in 22 cases (mean/median age at the time of surgery: 17.3/10 months). In one case, a testis instead of an ovary was observed in the hernia sac at the time of surgery. Surgeries were performed in 611 of the 673 patients (mean/median age at the time of surgery: 54/50 months). In 35 cases (mean/median age at the time of surgery: 21.6/10 months), the ovary was still on the hernia sac wall at the time of surgery, but an inguinal ovarian hernia had not been diagnosed before surgery in 13 of these cases. A severe complication occurred in only one case, in which a hernia sac that contained a fallopian tube and ovary was ligated. None of the cases exhibited torsion of the ovary within the inguinal canal.
Conclusion: Since the ovary can be expected to undergo spontaneous reduction into the abdomen by late infancy in many young patients with inguinal ovarian hernias, patients with inguinal ovarian hernias can be treated by elective surgery at the most convenient age, after 9 months of age.