2005 Volume 25 Issue 6 Pages 837-839
We present two cases of incarcerated umbilical hernias in adults. CASE 1: The patient was a 57-year-old male with liver cirrhosis and an umbilical hernia. He had undergone abdominal paracentesis by a private doctor, yielding 7, 500 ml of ascites. After that, he complained of severe abdominal pain, and he was then transferred to our hospital with the diagnosis of an incarcerated umbilical hernia. An emergency laparotomy was performed which revealed the incarcerat-ed jejunum that was not necrotic, so a bowel resection was not performed. Umbilical hernioplasty was then performed. CASE 2: The patient was a 53-year-old obese female with an umbilical hernia. She complained of abdominal pain for 7-days before admission, and noticed umbilical discharge, suggesting bowel perforation. Abdominal computerized tomography scanning showed impaction of intestinal loops inside the sac of an umbilical hernia, and consequently an emergency laparotomy was performed. Partial resection of the intestine had to be done, because the incarcerated jejunum was necrotic. We believe that the development of an incarcerated umbilical hernia occurred in the first case following massive paracentesis of ascites, and in the second case was due to severe obesity.
