Repair of an asymptomatic inguinal hernia does not affect the rate of long-term chronic pain and may be beneficial to patients in improving overall health and reducing potentially serious morbidity.

Whilst adhesions are the most common cause of small bowel obstruction, hernias remain the most frequent cause of strangulation in patients presenting with this condition.

Persistent pain after hernia repair is common, although it is usually mild. In 3% of patients it is severe, however, and has significant effects on work and social activities. The purpose of this review was to examine factors that affect pain after hernia repair. Although the type of anaesthetic used, local or general, and the operation type, open or laparoscopic, seems to affect acute pain, chronic persistent pain is influenced by the age of the patient and whether the hernia was painful preoperatively. Preliminary evidence indicating that use of a lightweight mesh may reduce chronic pain requires further research before definitive conclusions can be drawn.

A 31-year-old Syrian pregnant (25-week duration) patient who was managed as a case of bronchial asthma for one year because of chronic cough and progressive breathlessness presented to the Accident and Emergency Department at Hamad General Hospital, Doha, with cough and shortness of breath. On the day of admission, she coughed large amount of yellowish watery material which was salty and sour in taste. She was found by radiological investigations to have multiple giant hydatid cysts (three in the lungs and one in the liver), with ruptured cyst in the left lung. We report here an unusual case of giant multiple pulmonary hydatidosis localized in the lungs and masquerading as bronchial asthma in a pregnant lady. The case represents an uncommon situation of a common disease of rupture of hydatid cyst of the lung in a pregnant lady in her 3rd trimester.