Inguinal Hernia Among Patients Admitted in Tertiary Care Hospital, North Lakhimpur, Assam: A Descriptive Cross Sectional Study

Background: Abdominal wall hernia is one most common surgical conditions encountered in medical departments. Inguinal hernia is the most common among abdominal hernias. The definitive treatment being surgical repair of the herniation. In our study we tried to find out the burden of inguinal hernias in patients in Lakhimpur Medical College and Hospital, a peripheral tertiary Medical college in Assam. Aim: Our aim is to find out the prevalence of inguinal hernia among patients admitted in the Department of General surgery, Lakhimpur Medical College and Hospital, North Lakhimpur. Methods: Our study is single centric, retrospective, observational study. After obtaining approval from Institutional Ethical Committee, data was collected from medical records department of Lakhimpur Medical College and Hospital, North Lakhimpur. Data was collected for a period of 24 months, i.e from 1st January 2022 to 31st December 2023. The demographic profile with respect to age and sex, and the type of hernia was recorded. Results: The total number of patients admitted in surgical ward was 5742 and the total number of abdominal hernia admitted in the hospital was found to be 138 (2.4%). The number of inguinal hernias was 125 (2.17%), umbilical hernia 9 (0.15%), epigastric hernia 3(0.05%), and femoral hernia 1 (0.01%). Among the inguinal hernia patients (125 nos), 120 (96%) were males and 5 (4%) were females. Males were mostly from 51-60 age group and females from 21-30s. 81 (64.8%) patients suffered from right sided inguinal hernias, 39 (31.2%) from left sided and 5 (4%) from bilateral hernias. Out of which 92 (73.6%) were found to be indirect and 33 (26.4%) to be direct inguinal hernias