RESUMEN
Right-sided Bochdalek hernia is a mostly congenital condition of the diaphragm caused by a persistence of the pleuroperitoneal cavity and a rare disease in adults. As it often presents as an emergent situation, urgent diagnostics and surgical intervention are essential to reduce morbidity and mortality rates. Choosing the right surgical approach (abdominal, thoracic, or a combination of both) can be very challenging for clinicians. Here, we report a case of a 40-year-old woman, who presented with severe abdominal pain and tachypnoea. Imaging revealed a right-sided Bochdalek hernia. Emergency laparotomy was performed followed by reduction of hernia content, right-sided hemicolectomy, and side-to-side anastomosis from the ileum to the transverse colon due to intestinal ischemia and intrathoracic bowel perforation. The post-operative course was complicated by a pleural empyema. Therefore, the patient underwent thoracotomy. One year after surgical repair the patient had no recurrence. Here, we discuss feasible approaches for the surgical management of complicated Bochdalek hernias.
RESUMEN
BACKGROUND: Some medical disciplines have reported a strong decrease of emergencies during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic; however, the effect of the lockdown on general surgery emergencies remains unclear. METHODS: This study is a retrospective, multicenter analysis of general surgery emergency operations performed during the period from 1 March to 15th 2020 lockdown and in the same time period of 2019 in three medical centers providing emergency surgical care to the area Salzburg-North, Austria. RESULTS: In total 165 emergency surgeries were performed in the study period of 2020 compared to 287 in 2019. This is a significant decrease of 122 (42.5%) emergency surgeries during the COVID-19 lockdown (pâ¯= 0.005). The length of hospital stay was reduced to 3 days in 2020 compared to 4 in 2019. Appendectomy remained the most performed emergency surgery for both periods; however the number of surgeries was reduced to less than a half, with 72 cases in 2019 and 33 cases in 2020 (pâ¯= 0.118). Emergency colon surgery observed the strongest decrease of 75% from 17 cases in 2019 to 4 in 2020. In addition, the emergency abdominal wall hernia, cholecystectomies for acute cholecystitis, small surgeries and proctological emergencies recorded drops of 70%, 39%, 33% and 47% respectively. The strongest reduction in frequencies of emergency surgeries was reported from the designated COVID center in the examined region. CONCLUSIONS: Emergency general surgery is an essential service that continues to run under all circumstances. Our data show that COVID-19-related restrictions have resulted in a significant decrease in the utilization of acute surgical care.