Abstract

ZUBIRI, Juan E.; BELLORA, Antonio  and  SANTILLI, Osvaldo. Athletic pubalgia and inguinocrural hernias: role of ultrasonography. Rev. argent. radiol. [online]. 2010, vol.74, n.2, pp.171-178. ISSN 1852-9992.

Objective: To determine the performance characteristics of ultrasound for the diagnosis of inguinocrural hernias in patients with clinical manifestations of athletic pubalgia. Material and methods: Bilateral ultrasound scans were performed in the inguinocrural region of 400 consecutive patients with athletic pubalgia (800 inguinocrural regions explored, 379 males, 21 females, mean age 28; range 16-45 years). All the patients were athletes, professional or amateur, coming from a single center of sports medicine and health referred by a sub-specialist in pubalgia. The Ultrasound findings were compared to those of laparoscopic surgery or the findings obtained at the physical examination and eventual follow up at the outpatient clinic. The results were used to determine the sensitivity, specificity and positive and negative predictive value of ultrasound for the diagnosis of inguinocrural hernias in this group of patients. Results: The ultrasound findings suggested the presence of hernias in 128 inguinocrural regions (100 patients, 28 bilateral). When compared to the surgical and clinical findings, ultrasound showed a sensitivity of 96.96 % and a specificity of 100%. The Positive predictive value reached100% and the negative predictive value came to 99.4%. Conclusion: Ultrasonography is an imaging modality of high diagnostic accuracy to detect hernias that are not evident on physical examination or are of equivocal nature in patients with athlete pubalgia.

Keywords : Hernia; Inguinal; Abdominal wall; Ultrasound.

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