[Congenital trans-mesenteric hernia with incarceration in a five-year-old boy]

This is a case report of a five-year-old boy, presenting with abdominal pain and signs of gastrointestinal emergency imitating appendicitis. Diagnostic laparoscopy revealed an incarcerated internal hernia involving 50 cm of ischaemic small bowel. Bowel resection and primary anastomosis was performed. The post-operative outcome was uneventful. We wish to shed light on a seldom but important differential diagnosis to appendicitis in children, and raise attention to internal hernias in patients presenting with acute abdomen, whether it is due to congenital defects or a post-operative complication.