ABSTRACT

Background and Aim: Abdominal wall hernia is a communal surgical intervention complication with groin hernia being the most commonly presented hernia around the world. Delay in addressing these complications may cause morbidity and mortality. Hernias can be repaired using a variety of surgical techniques. The purpose of the current study was to assess the epidemiological profile and clinical experience of abdominal wall hernia in tertiary care hospital, Pakistan.

Materials and Methods: This epidemiological prospective study was conducted on 226 patients with abdominal wall hernia at HBS General Hospital, Islamabad for period of one year i.e from July 2020 June 2021. All the hernia patients admitted to the surgery department for abdominal wall hernias during the study period were examined. The relevant details of each individual were gathered from hospital medical and clinical records and noted in pre-designed proforma. Epidemiological and clinical profiles were tabulated and analyzed.

Results: The overall mean age of patients was 44.6± 5.6 with age ranges from 16 years to 72 years. Out of all the operated hernia patients, about 174 (77%) were male and 52 (23%) were female. The male to female ratio was 3.34:1.  Of the total 226 abdominal wall hernia patients, 202 (89.4%) patients were operated on. The prevalence of emergency-based operated hernia patients was 40 (19.8%). The most common operated abdominal wall hernia was groin hernia in 162 (80.4%) followed by umbilical, epigastric, paraumbilical, and rarer hernia with respective prevalence 20 (9.9%), 8 (3.9%), 10 (4.9%), and 2 (0.9%).  Ascites, prostatic problems, chronic cough, previous surgeries, chronic constipation, and obesity were the different predisposing factors. The prevalence of predisposing factors were ascites in 3 (1.3%), prostatic problems 46 (20.4%), chronic cough 113 (50%), previous surgeries 20 (8.8%), chronic constipation 41 (18.4%), and obesity 3 (1.3%).

Conclusion: Our study found that the male population is more susceptible to abdominal wall hernia compared to the female population. Low socioeconomic status with major risk factors such as constipation, old age, lifting heavy objects, smoking, surgery phobia, homeopathy medicine treatment were the main factors for increased rate of morbidity and mortality.