Publication date: Dec 16, 2025
Inguinal hernia repair is one of the most common pediatric surgical procedures performed with an estimated incidence of 1-5% in children. Patients can present with or without symptoms, with symptomatic hernias (incarcerated or strangulated) that may require emergent or urgent operative intervention. During the COVID-19 pandemic, restrictions, and shutdowns of elective surgeries at our institution resulted in delaying elective inguinal hernia repair unless presenting with more emergent symptoms, with no apparent increase in complication. In our institution, this practice was continued even after COVID restrictions were lifted, with elective repairs delayed until patients were older before completing elective inguinal hernia repair to also reduce early exposure to anesthesia. The aim of this study was to observe any changes in preoperative or postoperative complications after delaying repair of inguinal hernias in infants that initially present to the outpatient clinic. We completed a retrospective cohort study reviewing children
| Concepts | Keywords |
|---|---|
| Hernias | Delayed repair |
| Increase | Hernia incarceration |
| Outpatient | Inguinal hernia |
| Pandemic | |
| Pediatric |
Semantics
| Type | Source | Name |
|---|---|---|
| disease | MESH | Inguinal Hernia |
| disease | MESH | hernias |
| disease | MESH | COVID-19 pandemic |
| disease | MESH | postoperative complications |