Management of asymptomatic inguinal hernia Full Text
JAMA Surgery, 04/06/2012

Mizrahi H et al. – Both treatment options for asymptomatic IH are safe, but most patients will develop symptoms (mainly pain) over time and will require operation.

• The literature search retrieved 216 article headlines, and these articles were analyzed.
• Of those studies, a total of 41 articles were found to be relevant and 2 large well–conducted randomized controlled studies that published their results in several articles were reviewed.

• No significant difference in pain scores and general health status were found when comparing the patients who were followed up with the patients who had surgery.
• A significant crossover ratio ranging between 23% and 72% from watchful waiting to surgery was found.
• In patients with watchful waiting, the rates of IH strangulation were 0.27% after 2 years of follow–up and 0.55% after 4 years of follow–up.
• In patients who underwent elective surgery, the range of operative complications was 0% to 22.3% and the recurrence rate was 2.1%.