A 60-year-old woman was referred to the hospital because of abdominal pain and vomiting. Abdominal CT findings of the abdomen at the time of admission indicated enlargement of the small intestine within the pelvis and deviation of the uterus to the right. Symptomatic remission was attained by placing a long tube, but a complete obstruction was detected in the lower part of the small intestine. Thus she was operated on at the department 7 days after admission when laparoscopic operation was done for making the definite diagnosis and treatment. At laparotomy, we found that the ileum approximately 1m proximal to the ileocecal region was heriated into an about 3cm-sized defect of the left broad ligament of the uterus. Since intestinal necrosis had not developed, we extricated the intestine and sutured the defect without resecting the intestine. The patient had an uneventful postoperative course and was discharged from our hospital on 9^th postoperative day.
Internal hernia through a defect of the broad ligament of uterus is very rare. We report on our experience with a case of this entity. We analyzed all cases of internal hernia through the broad ligament of uterus reported in Japan to elucidate the clinical characteristics of this disease.