A study of role of low lying pubic tubercle in the development of inguinal hernia

Context: Hernia is defined as an abnormal protrusion of viscus through normal openings in the body. The lowness of pubic tubercle is associated with narrow origin of internal oblique muscle from lateral inguinal ligament which fails to protect the deep inguinal ring. The structural anatomy is altered i.e. the obliquity of the inguinal canal gets decreased, arching of conjoint tendon gets narrowed, and the shutter mechanism of internal oblique gets diminished leading on to the ineffective defence mechanism ending up in the development of inguinal hernia. Aim: To find out the prevalence of inguinal hernia in low lying pubic tubercle at our tertiary hospital setup. Materials and methods: The ST and SS Line measurements of the case were compared with those of controls to find out whether there was tendency of having low lying pubic tubercle in case of inguinal hernia. An attempt was also made to observe any correlation between ST segment and height, weight of the patients. The quantitative variables were summarized as mean and standard deviation while qualitative variables as percentage and proportion. To the statistical significance between the two independent two groups student ‘t’ test while in more than two groups ANOVA (one way) was applied and to show correlation Pearson’s correlation applied. The difference was considered significant when p value was less than 0.05. The statistical package used was SPSS 23. Results: This study showed that the people with low lying pubic tubercle have a reduction in efficiency of shutter mechanism of inguinal canal leading to the development of inguinal hernia. Conclusion: Group of people with low lying pubic tubercle are at high risk of developing inguinal hernia.