Four cases of omental herniation in cattle

Abstract

Four cases in cattle of omental herniation through an acquired omental rent are described. Clinical signs were indistinguishable from other causes of mechanical ileus and exploratory laparotomy was necessary to establish a diagnosis. In all cases a variably sized portion of jejunal loops was obstructed in an omental rent in the deep layer of the greater omentum. In two cases simple reduction was possible, and in one case incision of the hernial ring was necessary before reduction could be performed. Resection was necessary only in a calf, in which the incarceration was complicated by severe abomasal distension and local peritonitis. In all four cases the omental rent was closed by a serosa-serosa suture. Three cases made an uneventful recovery and returned to normal production, but one of these animals died three months postoperatively from an unknown cause. The calf was euthanased two days postoperatively because of persistent ileus.

Clinical and Ultrasonographic Observations of Omental Affections as Uncommon Causes of Mechanical Ileus in Cattle

“…Omental hernia where a piece of intestine was found prolapsed and entrapped medial to abdominal wall through a local tear of omentum (Pardon et al, 2009;Ruf-Ritz et al, 2013). This entrapment consequently disturbs the intestinal motility and compresses the intestine leading to distension of affected loops (5±0.5 cm diameter) mostly at right abdominal wall (Pardon et al, 2009) that were also demonstrated herein by ultrasonography and then confirmed by necropsy. Another recorded affection in this study is OFN (or abdominal/omental lipomatosis) was successfully diagnosed.…”

“…Additionally, most of such cases are ultimately referred to the hospital for addressing the problem by an expert sonographer. Thus, as previously reported, ultrasonographic examination of the abdomen plays a central role in diagnosis of internal abdominal abscesses (Abdelaal et al, 2017), diaphragmatic hernia (Abdelaal et al, 2014) and omental hernia (Pardon et al, 2009)…”

“…It is well known that omentum-derived ileus is rare and always confused with other ileus leading disorders in cattle. This kind of ileus may occur due to OH, OFN (or lipomatosis), or OB (Hekmati and Zakarian 1971;Grymer et al, 1982;Pardon et al, 2009;Tharwat and Buczinski 2012). All these forms are clinically accompanied by abdominal distension, so that, it is necessary to be critically diagnosed and differentiated from other disorders causing abdominal distension (for example: intestinal invagination and twisting as well as abomasal displacement) (Roussel et al, 2000;Lejeune et al, 2015).…”

“…I leus that is not cured by classical medical treatment is a great irritant to both clinicians and animals' owners due to its confusing symptoms and substantial economic burden, respectively (Braun et al, 1993). The most important type of ileus that always leads to intestinal obstruction is mechanical-paralytic ileus (Pardon et al, 2009;Ruf-Ritz et al, 2013). In spite of full clinical examination as well as biochemical and hematological analysis of blood and peritoneum fluid are routinely performed in such cases, however, their proper diagnosis and prognosis are still being equivocal (Pardon et al, 2009).…”

“…Despite these various advantages, the omentum may act as a home of some rare pathological changes (Schaudien et al, 2007). There are so far scarce case reports that have reported cases of omental disorders in cattle (Hekmati and Zakarian 1971;van Beukelen et al, 1979;Grymer et al, 1982;Pardon et al, 2009;Tharwat and Buczinski 2012). These reports, however, depend mainly on necropsy to reach diagnosis of such kind of cases.…”