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Inguinal Hernia Repair: Incidence of Elective and Emergency Surgery, Readmission and Mortality
Inguinal Hernia Repair: Incidence of Elective and Emergency Surgery, Readmission and Mortality
4
O International Epktemlologlcal Association 1996 Printed In Great Britain
Pnmatesta P (Unit of Health Care Epidemiology, Department of Public Health and Primary Care, University of Oxford,
Oxford OX3 7LF, UK) and Goldacre M J. Inguinal hernia repair: Incidence of elective and emergency surgery,
readmission and mortality. International Journal of Epidemiology AQ9G; 25: 835-839.
Inguinal hernia repair is the most common operation in to which health services are able to reduce emergency
general surgery in the US1 and Europe.2 Inguinal hernia surgery, by scheduling operations as close to the time
is much more frequent in males than in females. Poss- of diagnosis as possible, may be regarded as a good
ible aetiological factors include an open processus indication of their performance.
vaginalis (found in all children with indirect hernia) and To provide information about the incidence of
conditions which can raise intra-abdominal pressure, elective and emergency inguinal hernia repairs, early
such as chronic bronchitis or hyperplasia of the pro- emergency readmissions and postoperative mortality,
state.3 While some elderly people, particularly women, we studied data on inpatient admissions in a large,
may be unaware of their hernia until it strangulates, defined population covered by record linkage in the
most of the cases are easily diagnosed. An early referral south of England.
to the surgeon should mean short waiting times and
elective surgery.
Elective surgery for inguinal hernia has a very low METHODS
mortality (said to be <1 death per 10 000 operations4). The Oxford Record Linkage Study (ORLS) can be used
By contrast, the risks of postoperative complications as a computerized register of all inpatients and day
following an emergency operation are high, and in eld- cases admitted to National Health Service hospitals in
erly patients mortality can be as high as 5%.* The extent six districts of the Oxford region (total population 1.9
million people), with linkage of information about
Unit of Health-Care Epidemiology, Department of Public Health and successive events (admissions and death) relating to the
Primary Care, University of Oxford, Oxford OX3 7LF, UK. same patient. We identified all records in 1976-1986
835
836 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF EPIDEMIOLOGY
TABLE 1 Risk of admission for inguinal hernia repair in the a life span of 85 years and an incidence of herniorraphy
subsequent years of life after each age: percentage of people constant at the 1976-1986 levels.
projected to be admitted after each age
Elective 0 Emergency
12
T Females
t Males E Females
100-, Elective Emergency
Ic 10-
o
13
Q.
1-
a.
.1
I 0.01 i" i" n i*i* i i» J i l
w
people with early unplanned readmission were: compli- readmitted as emergencies within 30 days (4%) had a
cations of the operation, e.g. postoperative infection second operation on the hernia in the emergency read-
and haemorrhage or haematoma (18%), deep vein mission. Readmission rates were higher following an
thrombosis (8%), pulmonary embolism (7%), and other emergency index operation than following elective ad-
cardiovascular causes (7%). Eighteen of the 425 people mission (age-sex standardized rates per 1000 operations
838 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF EPIDEMIOLOGY
Lifetime Risk
Table 1 shows the cumulative lifetime risk for inguinal