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Case Reports
. 2015 May 7:6:165-170.
doi: 10.2147/VMRR.S74756. eCollection 2015.

Surgical treatment of an umbilical hernia in a free-ranging sub-adult African elephant in Samburu National Reserve, Kenya

Domnic Mijele  1 , Michael Njoroge  1 , Titus Kaitho  1
Affiliations
Case Reports

Surgical treatment of an umbilical hernia in a free-ranging sub-adult African elephant in Samburu National Reserve, Kenya

Domnic Mijele et al. Vet Med (Auckl). .

Abstract

A 10-year-old male African elephant (Loxodonta africana) at Samburu National Reserve in Northern Kenya, weighing approximately 1,600 kg, presented with an umbilical hernia in October 2013. Umbilical herniorrhaphy was carried out under field conditions. Anesthesia was induced and maintained using etorphine hydrochloride for 3 hours during the surgery. This case report details both the surgical and anesthetic procedure carried out to correct the hernia, and the eventual successful recovery of the elephant from anesthesia. However, the elephant died weeks after the surgery and a postmortem could not reveal the cause of death because predators had scavenged the carcass. The challenges of the surgical procedure and outcome including possible causes of death are highlighted in this report.

Keywords: African elephant; etorphine hydrochloride; general anesthesia; local anesthesia Lignocaine + adrenaline; umbilical herniorrhaphy.

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Conflict of interest statement

Disclosure The authors report no conflicts of interest in this work.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
A swelling described as an umbilical hernia located at ventral abdomen.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Closer view of the swelling/bulge described as an umbilical hernia.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Intestines had been pushed back into the abdominal cavity to facilitate surgical correction of the umbilical hernia.
Figure 4
Figure 4
The elephant walks away after the surgery.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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