[Incidence of accessory adrenal cortex tissue of the inguinal region in the child--results of a prospective study].

Aberrant adrenal cortical tissue is often found in close contact to the urogenital system. In a prospective study covering 150 operations for inguinal hernia, and 110 operations for undescended testes, we looked for aberrant adrenal cortical tissue. In 5.2% of the inguinal hernias and 10.9% of the undescended testes, aberrant adrenal cortical tissue was found. The frequency was higher than reported in the literature. The aberrant adrenal cortical tissue is of clinical importance only in the very rare cases of development of malignant tumours in this tissue.