West African journal of medicine
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Hernia surgery is one of the most frequent procedures done by surgeons - paediatric and general surgeons -in the African continent. ⋯ Based on the clinical studies reviewed, there is a large disease burden of inguinal hernias in Africa. There is, understandably, also a limited surgical capacity to reduce this burden. The authors advocate the formation of an African Hernia Society to partner with corporate and international organisations to make hernias a public health problem and to attempt to determine, using population-based studies, the actual burden of the disease in Africa and then to take modern hernia surgery to most parts of the continent to help reduce the hernia burden, especially its complications.