Case report – a rare case of a baby born with inguinal hernia

We hereby present to you a rare case in a 1 day old baby who presented to us with a right sided inguinal hernia. An inguinal hernia occurs when an intestinal loop or part of the omentum or genital organs passes into the scrotal cavity or labia through an incompletely obliterated processus vaginalis. Inguinal hernias are most common in preterm neonates, especially at 32-weeks gestation. The management of inguinal hernia in premature infants is slowly drifting from urgent exploration, surgery before discharge to readmission and elective surgery weighing the balance between risk of complications and anaesthesia. Advances in neonatal intensive care and improved survival of preterms have resurfaced the issue of dealing with such cases. Urgent surgery is indicated in patients with an akinetic dilated bowel loop (a sign of strangulation) or impaired testicular/ovarian perfusion. A baby born with inguinal hernia is a rare entity and no case has been reported in literature.