Iraqi Postgraduate Medical Journal

Abstract

ABSTRACT:

Amyand’s hernia is defined as the presence of an appendix inside the sac of inguinal hernia whether inflamed or not, it is very rare occurring in less than 1% of patients of inguinal hernia surgery. Although it was first described three centuries ago in an 11-year-old boy by Claudius Amyand, it still continues to possess some fuzziness regarding its diagnosis & treatment because of the scarcity of its occurrence. It has variable clinical presentation according to the extent of appendix inflammation & related complications. The diagnosis of an Amyand's hernia is difficult to settled clinically. However, imaging studies are beneficial for both diagnosis and recognition of the associated complications. Here, we report a case of Amyand's hernia in a 9-month-old male infant discovered incidentally during surgery for right sided inguinal hernia in the department of pediatric surgery in the Central Child Teaching Hospital in Baghdad in which we did reduction of a normal appendix into abdominal cavity & herniotomy with high up transfixation of hernia sac.
The purpose of presenting this case report is the rare occurrence of Amyand's hernia & the possibility of encountering an unusual content of hernia sac during the repair of inguinal hernia, that is why Amyand's hernia should be taken in consideration while operating on obstructed or strangulated inguinal hernia. The surgeon need to be aware of all clinical presentations with which the Amyand's hernia may present and the suitable, individualized option of surgical treatment applied. In this paper we review the
literature on presentation of Amyand's hernia and discuss the diagnostic modalities with the current options of its surgical treatment.