Who dies from hernia?

摘要

Over 700 deaths in England and Wales each year are ascribed to an underlying case of abdominal hernia, considerably more than for cholelithiasis, pancreatitis or inflammatory bowel disease. Abdominal hernias are consid- ered amenable to surgical intervention, there- fore hernia mortality is regarded as largely avoidable. None the less substantial variations in mortality exist at district level within the United Kingdom (UK). Age standardised Mortality among persons aged 5-64 years (0.20 deaths/10~5 persons) ranks third across Europe after France (0.26/10~5) and Italy 0.25/10~5), and is double the lowest rate observed. To try to identify possible reasons for this we reviewed all hernia deaths in a sin- gle English health district over a six year period.