Strangulated Internal Hernia Associated with Trauma

Two patients with strangulated intestinal obstruction due to internal hernia associated with trauma admitted to the Third Surgical Service at St. Luke's Hospital aroused our interest in this condition, especially since the first of these patients is our father. Intestinal obstruction caused by internal hernia is relatively uncommon, the incidence ranging from less than 0.01% to 5% of all cases of acute intestinal obstruction in various series. Even more unusual are those cases with hernia through defects in the mesentery or omentum, such as occurred in the cases here reported. Excluding those defects produced surgically, these amount to about 10% of the reported cases of internal hernia. Careful review of the literature revealed only 32 previous cases of hernia through a defect in the greater omentum (Table 1). The fine review by Martzloff16covered the period from 1840 to 1929, and three other authors reviewed the literature, but only