Femoral hernias in children at the Olabisi Onabanjo University Teaching Hospital, Sagamu, Nigeria.

OBJECTIVE: To ascertain the diagnostic accuracy and outcome of surgical treatment in Nigerian children referred for paediatric surgical opinion at the Olabisi Onabanjo University Teaching Hospital, Sagamu, South-west Nigeria.

DESIGN: A retrospective review of our practice experience over a 15-year period; between January, 1989 and December, 2003.

SETTING: The Olabisi Onabanjo University Teaching Hospital (OOUTH), serves as a referral centre for other government and private hospitals in and around the Ogun State, South-west Nigeria. The OOUTH, though a tertiary medical centre also receives patients who present directly at the General Out-Patient Clinics and the Emergency Units of the hospital. The catchment population is estimated at 7.5 million.

SUBJECTS: The medical records of all patients under 14 years of age with a final diagnosis of femoral hernia who presented between January, 1989 and December, 2003 were reviewed.

METHODS: The age, sex, mode of presentation, findings at surgery, procedure performed, immediate post-operative and 12 months follow-up details were recorded.

RESULTS: Seven of 1,213 (0.58%) patients with groin hernias within the study period had femoral hernias; four (57%) were girls and three (43%) were boys. Age range was 3 to 9 years. The mode of presentation in all the children was recurrent lump in the groin. Five patients (71%) had right sided lump while the lump was on the left side in two of the patients. The duration of symptoms ranged from two years to eight years. The provisional diagnosis by the referring general practitioners and paediatricians were incorrect in all seven patients. Five patients (71 %) were correctly diagnosed preoperatively by the attending surgeon while two were thought to be inguinal hernias.

CONCLUSION: The diagnosis of femoral hernia remains a challenging problem in childhood because of its rarity and similar clinical presentation as inguinal hernia.