Self-surgery : opening an obstructed inguinal hernia

Abstract EN

Self-surgery is the act of performing a surgical procedure on oneself1.

It can be a rare manifestation of a psychological disorder, an attempt to avoid embarrassment or legal action, or an act taken in extreme circumstances out of necessity2, 3.

By far the most common type of self-surgery is orchiectomy, removal of one or both testicles4- 6.

A small number of males resort to self-surgery in an attempt to control their sexual urges or due to gender identity disorder7.

Rarer still is the phenomenon of attempted repair of injury caused during masturbation or similar activity that would be embarrassing if revealed.

One notable example of this is a case report by Morton (1991) 8, 9.

Abdominal self-surgery is extremely rare.

A few wellpublicized cases have found their way into the medical literature4.

We report here a very rare case of self-surgery presented as opened obstructed inguino-scrotal swelling in a 65 years old man.

So we high light this unusual presentation of self-surgery