A rare case of acute abdomen: Garengeot hernia

Abstract

The association of acute appendicitis with femoral hernia,strangulated or incarcerated, represents a rare but well documented pathology in the specialized medical literature,also known as Garengeot hernia. The development of an acute appendicitis in the femoral hernia sac becomes a surgical emergency of acute abdomen. The diagnosis is always mistaken for the one of incarcerated or strangled hernia, the correct diagnosis being established intraoperatively, occasion which exposes the cecal appendix by opening the herniary bag, found in different morphological stages of inflammation that can go as far as gangrene or even perforation. In this paper, we have reported the case of a 76 year-old female that presented with femoral tumours, incarcerated, painful and initially considered as an incarcerated femoral hernia, the final diagnosis being made intraoperatively. The treatment for these "hernias" is generally simple, when there are no complications of acute appendicitis as the presence of pus in the hernia sac, and consists in appendectomy and herniorrhaphy. The absence of symptoms for an acute appendicitis often delays the surgery which leads to frequent complications and increased rate of morbidity.