Fróðskaparrit - 01.01.1952, Page 50

56
Um nalvalopið hjá pinkubornum
inasmuch as the boys exceeded the girls by only 2,3 per
cent. The sexual predominance is far more evident in small
infants. Birth weight is of decisive import. The frequency
of the umbilical hernia varies inversely with the birth weight
of the infant. Yery big infants demonstrate a slight ten-
dency to more umbilical hernias than do infants with ave-
rage hirth weight (table 1).
Regular seasonal variations of the incidence of umbi-
lical hernia could not be demonstrated (2. table, figure 1).
Nearly all the cases of umbilical hernia, 90,7 per
cent, first appear in the 1. quarter of life, very few in the
3. and 4. quarter (3. table).
All cases of umbilical hernia with the exception of
7 were treated with application of a broad strip of adhesive
plaster across the abdomen. According to the nurses the in-
cidence of umbilical hernia after this treatment was only
1,17 per cent at the age of one year, in 0,39 per cent the
result was unknown (4. table).
As there is no available group of children without
plastertreatment, it is not possible to determine the value
of the applied treatment. Undoubtedly it is of great value,
but the author supposes the incidence of umbilica hernia
found by the nurses after treatment at the age of one year
to be too low, compaređ with other statistics. He therefore
personally has examined 104 chilđren aged 2 to 6 year
from the Queen Ingrid’s kindergarten in Tórshavn and
found only 2 cases of real umbilical hernia. The real fre-
quency in properly strapped white infants at the age of one
year therefore scarcely exceeds 5 per cent.
Of all cases of umbilical hernia about 85 per cent
were cured by one continuous plastertreatment without any
relapse hefore the age of one year. The others relapsed one
or many times during the first year of life, but apparently
only 6—9 per cent still persisted at the age of one year (5.
table).
While high pressure in the abdomen and rachitis scar-