Successful Surgical Intervention of Strangulated Ileus with a Simple Cut of the External Iliac Vein without Vein Reconstruction

A 67-year-old woman with epigastralgia was referred to our hospital. The patient had undergone hysterectomy, bilateral oophorectomy, omentectomy, and radical pelvic and para-aortic lymph node dissection for her ovarian cancer 6 years before. Despite the gastrointestinal decompression therapy under the presumed diagnosis of adhesive ileus, computed tomography scans taken 3 days after the onset of epigastralgia showed marked dilatation of the small intestine and an oval high-density mass, that is, thrombi, in the right femoral vein. Aggravation of ileus with the thrombi in the femoral vein made us to treat the patient with surgery. Intraoperative findings showed that the terminal ileum was strangulated by a gap between the exposed right external iliac vein and artery presumably formed by pelvic lymph node dissection. Distal ileum strangulated by the gap, however, showed no ischemic change with no surgically available peritoneum left around the external iliac vein. To prevent the pulmonary embolism and the recurrence of this type of ileus due to both the thrombi and the persistent gap, we released the strangulated ileum with a simple cut of the external iliac vein without vein reconstruction. The patient recovered uneventfully and was discharged on the 13th day after operation. The patient has been well with nominal right leg edema. In this situation, that is, internal hernia caused by external iliac vessels with thrombi in the femoral vein and no leg edema, a simple cut of the external iliac vein without vein reconstruction is a feasible treatment option.