Inguinal Hernia

An inguinal hernia is the protrusion of abdominal cavity contents through the inguinal canal in the groin. About a third of those affected have no symptoms; when present, symptoms include pain or discomfort, often with coughing, exercise, or bowel movements, along with a bulge in the groin that grows larger when bearing down and disappears when lying down. Risk factors include smoking, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, obesity, pregnancy, peritoneal dialysis, and prior appendectomy, and predisposition to hernias runs in families. The main danger is strangulation, in which the blood supply to trapped intestine is cut off, causing severe pain and tenderness and risking tissue death; the condition is common, affecting about 27 percent of men and 3 percent of women at some point in life, with peaks in incidence before age one and after age fifty.