Oblitoma in inguinal hernioplasty

Abstract

Introduction: More than a century ago the North American urologist Kretschmer, reported the clinical case of a pa- tient who had a gauze removed from the scrotum years later, like a foreign body forgotten in an inguinal herniorrhaphy. He also reported 5 other cases of forgotten objects after surgery in other areas and referred to 236 cases reported by a Polish gynecologist and 155 cases found post-laparotomy by a compatriot surgeon. In 1940, two gynecologists from Missouri, the Crossen brothers, reported that mortality was close to 25 % from intra-abdominal foreign bodies in more than 500 audited cases, thus making the seriousness of this problem aware, and regulating behaviours in the future to avoid it. This only confi rms the veracity of the maxim "no surgery escapes the possibility of forgetting a foreign body". Case report: We report the clinical case of a patient who had an intrascrotal cystic-solid tumor after a Lichtenstein herniplasty which showed by ultrasound a hematocele and with a surgical indication, a gasome was found incidentally. Discussion: Oblitoma or foreign body retention after a surgical procedure is a real, current and preventable problem that affects the safety of the surgical patient and whose reports will be increasingly scarce because of their medical legal signifi cance, the introduction of laparoscopic surgery and the strict current ward rules. Oblitomas have been reported mainly after intraperitoneal surgery (digestive and gynecological) and in less proportion in extraperitoneal (thoracic, urological, neurological and trauma). Posinguinal herniotomy reports of oblitomas are anecdotal. We believe that post herniorrhaphy oblitoma should be considered and described, in addition to those already known, as a postoperative complication that can occur to any surgeon, however experienced he or she may be.