Mechanical intestinal obstruction in underweight, elderly women due to an incarcerated obturator hernia

Obturator hernia is an infrequent pelvic hernia observed in elderly, emaciated and multiparous women. It often presents with nonspecific clinical symptoms, making it difficult to diagnose.

We conducted a retrospective descriptive study on 11 patients admitted to our hospital for obturator hernia from 2009 to 2020.

All the patients were diagnosed with intestinal obstruction due to incarcerated obturator hernia preoperatively. Eight patients underwent laparotomy with low midline incision. Laparoscopic approach was tried on the other three patients with two patients converting to open surgery because of inadequate visualization, and only one patient received laparoscopic repair. Of the 10 patients receiving laparotomy, seven cases received obturator hernia repair with a match and three cases were subjected to bowel resection (two cases intestinal necrosis and one case intestinal perforation). Simple peritoneal closure was performed on the three contaminated cases. One patient died of septic shock and multiple organ failure.

The emergent computed tomography allow for early and precise diagnosis of incarcerated obturator hernia. Laparotomy with low midline incision is commonly used to manage obturator hernia in an emergency, whereas laproscopic approach may only apply to some selected cases.