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Updated: Feb 14, 2026

Intravital Microscopy of the Inguinal Lymph Node
Published on: April 4, 2011
Pubic and inguinal venous collaterals mimic inguinal hernia
F Oldhafer1, T Alten2, J Klempnauer1
1Department of General, Visceral and Transplant Surgery, Hannover Medical School, Hannover, Germany.
Abstract:
Herein we report a case of a 38-year-old men who presented with acute suprapubic pain caused by a tubular, hypoechoic, non-compressible, inguinal mass with no flow evident on color Doppler sonography. The history of the patient, the clinical signs of local inflammation and tenderness on palpation as well as the results of the Doppler ultrasound examination led to the diagnose of an inguinal hernia with bowl incarceration. However, due to a remaining uncertainty whether a bilateral or unilateral hernia was immanent and whether the bowl incarceration was caused by a right or left sided hernia the on-call surgeon initiated a computed tomography (CT) scan. Surprisingly, this CT scan revealed extensive suprapubic venous collaterals with thrombophlebitis that mimicked a bilateral inguinal hernia secondary to an acute unilateral femoral vein thrombosis. Instead of undergoing surgery the patient was treated with antibiotics, pain killer and heparin and was discharged from hospital after 8 days.
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