should hernia in children be treated contralaterally?
PURPOSE: This study was done to identify risk factors for metachronous manifestation of contralateral inguinal hernia in patients with unilateral inguinal hernia. METHODS: Characteristics of 156 patients with metachronous contralateral hernia were compared with those of 156 patients with unilateral hernia who were ascertained not to have presented with contralateral hernia. RESULTS: There was a tendency for the hernia to be more often on the left side in 88 of 156 patients (56.4%) with contralateral manifestation compared with 70 of 156 patients (44.9%) in the control group (P =.054). The age at hernia repair of the patients with contralateral manifestation, 1 to 120 months (median, 14 months), was significantly younger than the 1 to 149 months (median, 20 months) of the control patients (P =.016). More patients with contralateral manifestation had a family history of inguinal hernia, and the percentage, 24.4%, was significantly higher than the 14.7% in the control group (P =.046). A u
