Recurrent abdominal pain in an older woman: Enlarged OE‐P gap on computed tomography as an indicator of non‐strangulated obturator hernia

Abstract

Obturator hernia (OH) is a relatively rare abdominal wall hernia with a high mortality rate. The diagnosis of OH is challenging because of symptomatic variations and spontaneous reduction in hernia on imaging. An 89‐year‐old woman presented to our emergency department with pain in the abdomen and right groin. Computed tomography (CT) revealed an incarcerated small bowel in the gap between the obturator externus and pectineus (OE‐P gap). Symptoms disappeared after manual reduction. She experienced these same symptoms intermittently during the past year and underwent abdominal CT 4 times after disappearance of symptoms. The CT scans at each previous visit showed an enlarged OE‐P gap (an average of 80 mm) compared with the asymptomatic side (an average of 34 mm). An enlarged OE‐P gap on CT images taken after disappearance of symptoms could be a sign of spontaneously reduced OH.