Incarcerated inguinal hernia? No, acute pancreatitis

Abstract

A 62-year-old man presented to the Emergency Department with a 2-day history of right testicular pain. The initial diagnosis was orchiepididymitis (later found to be mistaken), and intravenous antibiotic treatment was started. Twenty-four hours later, the patient had mild pain in the right inguinal area and right infra-abdominal area. We performed an inguinal ultrasound that showed an incarcerated mass of mixed echogenicity in the right inguinal area. Surgery was performed because we thought the patient had an inguinal incarcerated hernia. Two days after the surgical procedure, the patient began to have fever and erythema and pain in the back. Abdominal computed tomography (CT) showed an acute pancreatitis with a peripancreatic collection from the pancreas to right inguinal area. We have reviewed similar cases in the literature and note that, infrequently, an inguinal mass can be the first sign of mostly asymptomatic acute pancreatitis.