Case Report
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2021. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Cases. Dec 6, 2021; 9(34): 10728-10732
Published online Dec 6, 2021. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v9.i34.10728
Obturator hernia - a rare etiology of lateral thigh pain: A case report
Jun Young Kim, Min Cheol Chang
Jun Young Kim, Min Cheol Chang, Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, College of Medicine, Yeungnam University, Taegu 705-717, South Korea
Author contributions: Kim JY and Chang MC contributed equally to this work. Kim JY and Chang MC both designed the research study, performed the research, analyzed the data, and wrote the manuscript; all authors have read and approve the final manuscript.
Supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea Grant funded by the Korean Government, No. NRF-2021R1A2C1013073.
Informed consent statement: The need for informed consent was waived by the Institutional Review Board of Yeungnam University Hospital because of the retrospective nature of this case report.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
CARE Checklist (2016) statement: The authors have read the CARE Checklist (2016), and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to this checklist.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Min Cheol Chang, MD, Associate Professor, Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, College of Medicine, Yeungnam University, 317-1 Daemyungdong, Namku, Taegu 705-717, South Korea. wheel633@gmail.com
Received: July 27, 2021
Peer-review started: July 27, 2021
First decision: September 1, 2021
Revised: September 2, 2021
Accepted: October 18, 2021
Article in press: October 18, 2021
Published online: December 6, 2021
Abstract
BACKGROUND

Lateral thigh pain is a common complaint in patients visiting a pain clinic. Herein, we describe the case of a patient with lateral thigh pain caused by an obturator hernia.

CASE SUMMARY

An 83-year-old woman visited the emergency room with suddenly aggravated right lateral thigh pain. Magnetic resonance imaging of the thigh revealed no abnormal findings in the lateral thigh area. However, an obturator hernia between the pectineus and obturator externus muscles was observed by chance. Retroperitoneal computed tomography revealed a herniated small bowel with an incarceration point at the right obturator canal and a dilated loop of the small bowel upstream. Ultrasonography of the right inguinal region revealed a distended bowel loop in the right pectineus muscle.

CONCLUSION

Our report provides clinicians with information that an obturator hernia can cause lateral thigh pain.

Keywords: Obturator hernia, Pain, Magnetic resonance image, Computed tomography, Ultrasonography, Case report

Core Tip: The causes of thigh pain are diverse. Although it is a rare disorder, an obturator hernia should be suspected, and imaging studies should be performed when musculoskeletal disorders causing thigh pain are not found in patients with medial, anterior, or lateral thigh pain. Additionally, our report provides clinicians with information that an obturator hernia can cause lateral thigh pain.