Background: Congenital inguinal hernia is a very important subject for both general and pediatric surgeons, and many issues related to the inguinal hernia in infants and children are still confusing. Especially to explore the contralateral side or not. Aim of the work: To asseas the use of surgical laparoscopy in the diagnosis of the hernia in the unilateral and non - clinically visible on the other side and through the hernial sac. Patients and methods: This  is  a  prospective  study  that  was held  in  the pediatric  Surgery  unit , Minia University   Hospital on 100 patients who had unilateral congenital inguinal hernia between February 2016 and February  2018. Informed consents from parents of all patients were taken before entering the study.   Results: One hundred pediatric patients with unilateral inguinal hernia. Their age wae up to 1 year, 28 patients were preterm and 72 patient were full term. Clinically, 54 of the patients had right sided inguinal hernia, 46 had left sided inguinal hernia. There were 58 males and 42 females. 38 of the clinical unilateral inguinal hernias were found to have a contralateral patent processus vaginalis or contralateral inguinal hernia, and all of these were repaired during the same operation. 5 patients developed complications (four cases of oedema and one case of haematoma). There were no wound infection and no recurrence. Conclusion: This technique is useful for detecting contralateral hernia for infants having unilateral congenital inguinal hernia with non-evident hernia on other side who are less than one year especially in preterm babies.