Diagnosis and treatment of obturator hernia: retrospective analysis of 86 clinical cases at a single institution

BACKGROUND: To explore the clinical characteristics, diagnosis and treatment of obturator hernia. METHODS: Eighty-six patients who were diagnosed as obturator hernia by abdominal CT in the Department of Gastrointestinal Surgery of our hospital between 2009 and 2019 were enrolled in this study. Patient characteristics, surgical method, postoperative complications and mortalities were retrospectively reviewed. RESULTS: Thirty days mortality rate of 5.5% and 46.1% were observed in surgery group and non-surgery group, respectively. Surgery was performed as an emergency procedure in 59 cases and elective procedure in 14 cases depending on different hernia contents, intestinal necrosis and signs of peritonitis. In the emergency surgery group, segmental intestinal resection with anastomosis was performed in 24 patients (24/59, 40.7%). There were 4 deaths (4/59, 6.8%) in this group, all of which occurred in patients undergoing SI resections. In contrast, no bowel resection, postoperative complications, or death occurred in the elective surgery group. 3-year recurrence rates of 5.1% (3/59) and 7.1% (1/14) were observed in the emergency surgery and the elective surgery group, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: CT examination plays an important role in improving the diagnostic rate of obturator hernia. Timely surgical treatment is the key to improve the efficacy of obturator hernia and prevent the deterioration of the condition. In addition, intestinal resection and postoperative complications may be the important factors leading to postoperative death.