Groin Hernias in the Adult Presenting as Emergencies

Abstract

A minority of patients with a groin hernia present as an emergency, with a painful and irreducible mass or with intestinal obstruction. The terminology for the complications affecting a hernia is confusing, as various authors refer to irreducibility, incarceration, obstruction, and strangulation. Each of these terms involves irreducibility, for which incarceration is merely a synonym.