Hernia repair under local or intravenous Ketamine in a tropical low socio-economic population

Background: All over the world hernia surgery constitutes a significant portion of the operations performed by a general surgeon. Operations for hernias ideally should be within the purview of secondary health centres thus allowing the tertiary health centres to focus on research and/or manage unusual or difficult presentations of diseases. Study design: This prospective study reviews the management of hernias in the Catholic hospital Oluyoro in Ibadan by recording the demographic data, hernia characteristics and operations performed on 98 paediatric and 171 adult hernia patients who presented to the hospital between April 1996 and October 1998 with the use of intravenous Ketamine or local infiltration with xylocaine. Results: In a 30-month period from April 1996 to October 1998, the author operated on 98 paediatric and 171 adult hernia patients. There were no paediatric mortalities but there was 1 adult mortality. Conclusion: This paper shows that hernia operations in paediatric and adult patients can be safely done under intravenous Ketamine or local infiltration with xylocaine injection in a secondary care health institution