Small-bowel obstruction due to congenital anomaly of the falciform ligament

A patient who initially had a small-bowel obstruction was found, at laparotomy, to have an internal hernia through a defect of the falciform ligament. Simple resection of the round ligament was curative. The defect is presumed to have been congenital in origin. No previous report could be found in our review of the literature.