Diagnosis of an Inguinal Hernia after a Blunt Inguinal Trauma with an Intestinal Perforation

. Inguinal hernias are very common in men. A clinical exam can do the diagnosis easily. But bowel perforation inside an inguinal hernia caused by a directly blunt trauma is rare and can have important consequences. Up to now, there have been a few case reports that described blunt injury to the inguinal area causing traumatic perforation of the bowel in the inguinal hernia. Case Report . We present a case of a 45-year-old Eastern European man with a small perforation of ileal bowels and a peritonitis after direct blunt trauma to the inguinal hernia region, with no inguinal hernia known by the patient, and show how the diagnosis can be difficult. Conclusion . This case shows that external forces, that may seem too trivial to cause intraperitoneal injury, can cause significant injury when applied to a patient with a hernia and shows how a careful examination, with the help of an abdominal CT scan, is important even if the patient do not seem to have an inguinal hernia.