Acute intestinal obstruction, difficulties in diagnosis in strangled hernias of the obturator foramen and surgical tactics

Relevance. Hernias of the obturator canal are extremely rare in surgical practice. This type occurs in 0.07% to 1% of all known hernias, in which the contents of the pelvic or abdominal organs penetrate through the obturator foramen. The hernias in question occur predominantly in elderly women of low nutrition with a large history of childbirth. This is explained by the peculiarities of the anatomical structure of the female pelvis: its pronounced slope, the larger size of the obturator foramen, the more vertical position of the obturator canal compared to the male, and the weakness of the pelvic floor muscles. Diagnosing an obturator hernia is very difficult. Being difficult to diagnose cases, strangulated hernias of the obturator canal are detected at the treatment stage and are accompanied by high mortality. Mortality for these manifestations ranges from 12% to 70%, with postoperative measurements in 11.6% of cases. These statistics provide the majority of observations provided by reputable Japanese colleagues [3].