Background Open surgery (OS) repair represents the standard treatment in inguinal hernia (IH) in children, in whole world and still very well credited even though modern surgery provides interventional alternatives.

Aim Clinical-evolutive assessment of IH repair by OS in 2011–2013 period.

Methods The evaluation criteria of retrospective study were: age, environment provenance (EP), diagnosis at discharge, length of stay (LoS), surgical procedure protocol, cost of hospitalisation (CoH) and complications.

Results 64 cases were evaluated: 45 (70,31%) younger than 7 years old, 33 (51,56%) originated from rural environment, 44 right side IH (4 strangulated, 5 scrotal-inguinal, 1 descends into labia) and 20 left side IH (2 scrotal-inguinal, 2 descend into labia), 40 (62,5%) with LoS shorter than 5 days. The average LoS was 4,171 days. The surgery protocols record OS in all cases, 2 cases also requiring hematoma evacuation. Were recorded 8 postsurgical complications (5 hematoma, 3 scrotal oedema). Average CoH per day was 326, 70 RON and average CoH per patient 1324,63 RON.

IH were more frequent in patient younger than 7 years old from urban environment (p 0,08). Postsurgical complications were significantly more frequent in patient younger than 7 years old (p 0,05) without being influenced by IH side. There were no significant correlation between age and type of complication. Average CoH per day was negative influenced by complications (p 0,02) and positive by average LoS (p 0,09).

Conclusions The OS repair in IH in children still remains a frequently used procedure, implies fewer complications and not expensive costs.