title: Clinical presentation and operative repair of hernia of Morgagni.
abstract: A 77 year old woman who presented with an incarcerated hernia of Morgagni was successfully treated without complications. A Medline search (1996 to date) along with cross referencing was done to quantify the number of acute presentations in adults compared to children. Different investigating modalities--for example, lateral chest and abdominal radiography, contrast studies or, in difficult cases, computed tomography or magnetic resonance imaging--can be used to diagnose hernia of Morgagni. The favoured method of repair--laparotomy or laparoscopy--is also discussed. A total of 47 case reports on children and 93 case reports on adults were found. Fourteen percent of children (seven out of 47) presented acutely compared with 12% of adults (12 out of 93). Repair at laparotomy was the method of choice but if uncertain, laparoscopy would be a useful diagnostic tool before attempted repair. Laparoscopic repair was favoured in adults especially in non-acute cases.
authors.affiliation: Tumour Biology Laboratory, Bart's and the London Queen Mary's School of Medicine and Dentistry, John Vane Science Centre, Charterhouse Square, London ECIM 6BQ, UK.
authors.forename: T P F
authors.initials: TP
authors.lastname: Loong
authors.forename: H M
authors.initials: HM
authors.lastname: Kocher
mesh_terms: D000208:Acute Disease; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D005260:Female; D006548:Hernia, Diaphragmatic / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000601:surgery; D006801:Humans; D010535:Laparoscopy