Laparoscopic Treatment of a De Garengeot Hernia – Case Report and Review of Literature

Abstract

De Garengeot hernia is defined as femoral hernia containing appendix. It’s an extremely rare occurrence occurring in 0.5% to 3% of femoral hernia cases, with a female: male ratio is 6: 1. We report the case of a 71 years old female patient, who presented an incarcerated right femoral hernia. We performed an explorative laparoscopy with the visualisation of the appendix. The appendix was normal. An intraabdominal reduction of the appendix and the treatment of the hernia by TAPP technique was performed. De Garengeot hernia can be can be a unusal discovery during surgery. The differential diagnostic is with Amyand hernia, which is an incarceration of the appendix in an inguinal hernia. Due to the low occurence of this pathology the explorative laparoscopy may be a valid technique for diagnostic and treatment. In case of acute appendicitis, the use of the mesh is not formally recommended. The laparoscopic treatment of De Garengeot’s hernia is feasible even in emergency setting. If the appendix is inflammatory the appendectomy is mandatory.