Incarceration and strangulation of the commonplace indirect inguinal hernia is still a significant management problem in children. We have studied a series of 2,764 consecutive patients operated upon for hernia at the Columbus Children's Hospital. Three hundred and fifty-one hernias or 12.7% were incarcerated or strangulated or both at the time of admission. The influence of age, side involved, sex, race, delay in, and method of management in the outcome has been statistically evaluated.