Abstract
A 76-year-old man was referred to our hospital because of abdominal fullness and vomiting. He had been diagnosed as having right inguinal hernia 8 years earlier, and sometimes reduced his groin bulge by himself. On admission, his abdomen was swollen but both inguinal regions were normal. CT scan revealed that dilatation of the small intestine and caliber change of the intestine in contact with right internal inguinal ring. A contrast medium test of the small intestine showed bowel obstruction at right inguinal region. Although there was no groin mass, these findings suggested the cause of bowel obstruction was right inguinal hernia. Thus, we performed a laparoscopic operation. Upon laparoscopy, the small intestine incarcerated into the inguinal canal. The intestine formed a mass in the preperitoneal space medial to the inferior epigastric artery. We diagnosed as false reduction of right inguinal hernia, and reduced the intestine laparoscopically. After the reduction, blood flow of the small intestine was recovered, so we did not resect the small intestine. We performed mesh-plug repair by anterior approach. To our knowledge, this is the first reported case of false reduction of right inguinal hernia diagnosed with laparoscopy.
