Patient: Hello, Dr. Ma! Even though I have not met you in person, I can feel from your reply that Dr. Ma is a really good doctor with very high medical ethics. China is so short of doctors like you. My son, who is now 1 year and 4 months old, suddenly cried one night last month and when he was urinating, he found that his left scrotum had swollen up to the size of his little finger. The next day, he went to Hunan Children’s Hospital, where the doctor told him to go home for observation and to come to the hospital immediately in case of incarceration; the medical record said “elective surgery”. In this month, it may have fallen to the scrotum 3 times; usually the left side of the groin will bulge up when I exert myself; when I lay the child flat and lift the foot, it will still go up; so now I try not to let the child cry and exert himself, but the child is in the middle of an activity period, so this is too restrictive for him. I would like to ask: 1. Is it appropriate to do the surgery at the age of 1 year and 4 months? How will the child survive the preoperative and postoperative periods when he needs to be fasted and dehydrated? Also, is it necessary to lie down in bed after the surgery, which children seem to be unable to do? 2, I asked some doctors in Changsha, most of them said to take the traditional surgery; and from the Internet, it seems that laparoscopy and the traditional method have their own advantages and disadvantages; in the operation, laparoscopy seems to be not as clear as the traditional surgery. Without considering the economic aspect, which surgery is better? 3. Is minimally invasive surgery laparoscopic? It’s a bit vague. I have more questions. Thank you, Dr. Ma. Xiaopeng Ma: Hello! Hernia is usually treated conservatively within one year of age because of the possibility of self-healing. However, if it continues to worsen and there is no possibility of self-healing, surgery is needed. The age at which we usually do the most surgery is children around 1-2 years old. Some children have a large hernia ring and the small intestine is usually inside the scrotum, so as long as no intussusception occurs, it does not affect the child. However, if an incarcerated hernia has occurred, surgery must be performed as soon as possible, because sometimes when a hernia is incarcerated, not every doctor can reset it manually, and if it is too tight, it is very difficult to reset it, and it is very risky to reset it, because too much force or improper technique can cause intestinal rupture, and the child will suffer. The most important feature of minimally invasive laparoscopic surgery is that it causes little damage and quick recovery. It is much clearer than traditional surgery. There are only three small wounds on the stomach, which can be glued with medical glue and are almost invisible later. In addition, minimally invasive laparoscopic surgery for hernia has another advantage that cannot be replaced by traditional surgery, that is, during the surgery, it is possible to simultaneously explore whether there is also a potential unclosed sphincter on the opposite side and to operate at the same time, avoiding the need to be hospitalized again after the previous hernia on one side has been done, and after about six months, the hernia on the opposite side has flared up again. The cost is more than a thousand dollars more than the traditional hernia surgery.