A case of internal hernia in the mesentery of the transverse colon

Abstract

A 58-year-old man visited our emergency clinic because of left abdominal pain, for which prescribed anodyne was effective. Four days later, he was hospitalized to our hospital because he became to have left abdominal pain again and vomiting. Abdominal CT scan showed a mass formed by the small intestine behind the stomach with decreased contrast enhancement of the small intestinal wall. The patient was diagnosed as having strangulated ileus resulting from an internal hernia, and underwent an emergency operation on the sameday. Laparotomy revealed an oval defect about 3cm in diameter in the mesentery of the transverse colon. About 80cm long portion of the small intestine had invaginated through the defect. The invaginated small intestine was manually reduced when no necrosis was seen and the defect was repaired by sutures. The patient followed a favorable postoperative course and was discharged on the postoperative day 7.
We report our experience with a case of this rare condition with a leview of the literature.