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Mesh on the move: a case report of total transmural surgical mesh migration causing bowel obstruction

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Abstract

We present the case of a 60-year-old man with a complex medical history, presenting to the hospital with generalized weakness and found to be markedly hyperglycemic. Early in the patient’s hospital course, he developed abdominal pain and was found to have a small bowel obstruction secondary to intraluminal migrated surgical mesh entrapped in the terminal ileum. The bowel obstruction was relieved surgically with uncomplicated mesh removal and ileocecectomy. Surgical mesh migration is a relatively rare complication of hernia repair and abdominal wall reconstruction, and intraluminal mesh migration is an even more rare variant. Our case demonstrates key clinical and imaging features and serves as an important example of how such cases may present.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA

    Joseph Ryan Leach

  2. Department of Radiology, San Francisco Veterans Affairs Medical Center, 4150 Clement St, Building 200, Room 2D-008, San Francisco, CA, 94121, USA

    Joseph Ryan Leach

  3. Department of Surgery, Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, Lebanon, NH, USA

    Bryan Manoukian

  4. Department of Surgery, San Francisco Veterans Affairs Medical Center, San Francisco, CA, USA

    Lygia Stewart

Authors
  1. Joseph Ryan Leach
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  2. Bryan Manoukian
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  3. Lygia Stewart
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Correspondence to Joseph Ryan Leach.

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Joseph Leach, Bryan Manoukian, and Lygia Stewart declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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All the procedures followed have been performed in accordance with the ethical standards laid down in the 1964 Declaration of Helsinki and its later amendments.

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Informed consent was obtained from all the patients for being included in the study.

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Leach, J.R., Manoukian, B. & Stewart, L. Mesh on the move: a case report of total transmural surgical mesh migration causing bowel obstruction. Clin J Gastroenterol 14, 136–140 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12328-020-01291-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12328-020-01291-5

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