Postoperative interstitial hernia as a cause of obscure incisional wound site pain.

An interstitial hernia is one in which the hernia sac is located between the layers of the abdominal wall. The analysis of contemporary literature shows that interstitial hernias are most often seen in children as a type of inguinal hernia and often accompany undescended testis. The hernia sac is usually located between the external-oblique and internal-oblique muscles in a lateral-cephalic direction. The authors present 3 cases of interstitial hernia found during laparoscopic exploration of the front abdominal wall done due to incisional wound site pain. No previous diagnosis of hernia was considered in all the cases. Hernias were found as complications of appendectomy and wound healing after radiotherapy of uterine and cervical cancer. In conclusion, in obscure wound site pain, the presence of an interstitial postoperative hernia should be considered as a possible reason for the complaint. Laparoscopic examination of the anterior abdominal wall during adhesiolysis in patients with abdominal pain enables proper diagnosis and treatment.