Abstract
The patient was a 54-year-old woman, who had mainly been treated by adrenocortical hormone therapy since she was diagnosed with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) in 2004. She noticed a fist-sized bulge in the left flank in the mid-June of 2012. An abdominal CT scan for the bulge revealed a diagnosis of ventral hernia at the left flank and she was referred to our hospital. When she was first seen, she had no abdominal symptoms and we decided to observe her clinical course, considering a risk of postoperative complications due to a long-term steroid therapy. Thereafter the hernia rapidly enlarged and she complained of pain and nausea, so that we performed surgery. Operative findings included an about 8 × 22 cm rupture of the abdominal wall muscle and an infant's head sized hernia sac which prolapsed through the rupture. The repair of the hernia was done by turning the sac inside out and by fixing a VentrioTM Hernia Patch between the peritoneum and transverse muscle of the abdomen. The postoperative course was uneventful and she was discharged from our hospital on 9th postoperative day.
We here present a case of an a ventral hernia which might be caused by long-term steroid administration and an increase in the abdominal pressure, together with a review of the literature.
