Umbilical & Inguinal Hernias: Explained | Cincinnati Children's

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A GlobalCast MD production: Umbilical & Inguinal Hernias: Explained

Todd Ponsky, MD, pediatric surgeon: "Hi, my name is Todd Ponsky, and I’m a surgeon at Cincinnati Children’s. Today we’re going to talk about hernias. Umbilical Hernias and Inguinal Hernias. So your child has an Inguinal Hernia.

What is an Inguinal Hernia? Inguinal Hernia is one of the most common surgical conditions in childhood. During development when the testicles and the ovaries drop down lower in the abdomen a small canal or tunnel is made from the abdomen down into the groin. This needs to be repaired because of the risk that something could get caught in that tunnel.

How does this present? Typically, children will notice a bulge in their groin or scrotum. Usually this is something that comes and goes.

So what do we do with an Inguinal Hernia? We fix them! These can be repaired either through a tiny incision in the groin or now we’re doing these laparoscopically with tiny little needle sized incisions. The idea of the operation is that we close off that tunnel so nothing else can go down into the groin.

Is this urgent? In new born babies the risk of incarceration or when the intestines get stuck in the hernia is pretty high. So we recommend doing early repair. Usually within a couple of weeks. In older children it’s not so urgent but we do recommend repair.

What can you expect form hernia surgery? Well fortunately this is outpatient surgery. Your child will come in for a relatively short operation and be home shortly after the operation. Also they can return to regular activities and go back to school very quickly.

What are the risks? One of the risks is a recurrence that the hernia would come back again. That happens about 1% of the time both in the open approach or the laparoscopic approach.

Another type of hernia that children get that’s very common is called an Umbilical Hernia. An Umbilical Hernia is when a child is born with a hole where the belly button is. Because of that hole the intestines can poke out and it looks like a bulge at the belly button. Most of these close on their own by the time the child gets to be about 3-5 years of age. If it’s still there at 3-5 years of age we would recommend repair.

The repair is actually quite simple. Your child would come in and under anesthesia a small incision would be made below the belly button. The intestines would be place back inside the abdomen and the hole would be closed. It’s an outpatient procedure your child would be home about a hour or two after surgery.

Remember hernias are very common but fortunately the repair is very straight forward and now we even have less invasive more advanced approaches.