Umbilical hernia--a potential donor-site complication of fat injection laryngoplasty

Injection laryngoplasty with autologous fat appears to be an effective and simple technique for the treatment of patients with glottic insufficiency in comparison with other surgical techniques. Despite of its advantages, associated complications have also been reported, including immediate donor-site morbidity (eg, hematoma and abscess), fat extrusion of the injection site, and delayed manifestation of vocal granuloma or overinjected vocal folds. In this article, a patient suffering from accidental injury to the deep abdominal fascia without peritoneal penetration in the fat harvest procedure is presented. Three months after the fat injection laryngoplasty, an umbilical hernia was proved to occur via the clinical imaging. Several etiologies are supposed to induce the herniation of intraabdominal structures, including surgeon's incaution, abdominal obesity, intense wound inflammation and fibrosis, and the native weak point of the abdominal wall around the umbilicus. This case provides information that overdepth and negligence in fat harvest may injure the deep abdominal fascia, then possibly causing the umbilical hernia as a delayed donor-site complication.