Lesser omental hernia after total colectomy: report of a case

Lesser omental hernia is a rare type of hernia that can cause intestinal obstruction. To our knowledge, there are only 16 documented cases of lesser omental hernia, including the present case. The subject of this case report was a 42-year-old man with a history of total colectomy for colon perforation caused by Crohn's disease 15 years earlier, who presented with epigastralgia and vomiting. Abdominal computed tomography (CT) revealed a distended bowel loop ventral to the stomach and convergence of mesenteric vessels at the lesser curvature of the stomach. Based on a diagnosis of intestinal obstruction caused by a lesser omental hernia, he underwent emergency surgery, which revealed a 150-cm jejunal segment herniating through a 5-cm defect in the lesser omentum from the retrogastric space. We reduced the herniated loop and closed the hernial orifice successfully. We describe the characteristic CT findings, which allowed us to make the preoperative diagnosis, and speculate how the past total colectomy, in which the gastrocolic ligament was isolated and the transverse colon was resected, probably caused by this hernia. This case serves to demonstrate that lesser omental hernia could be a postoperative complication of total colectomy.