Hydrocele of the canal of Nuck — an old problem revisited

Abstract

Herein the authors describe the case of a young woman presenting with a tender lump in her groin. Clinically the differential was of either a reactive lymph node or a femoral hernia. Ultrasound scan was urgently arranged and showed a cystic lesion. Surgical exploration was carried out and revealed this to be a hydrocele of the canal of Nuck. This was excised and the patient’s symptoms resolved and she was discharged home the following day. We explore the embryology, pathophysiology and management of this rare entity.

Keywords

canal of Nuck / hernia / embryology

References

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Acknowledgements

The patient kindly gave full written permission for this report to be made including the use of ultrasound and intraoperative images.

Also thanks to Dr. Joel Tay who photographed the intraoperative findings.

Compliance with ethics guidelines

John Bunni, Mark Gillam, and Ian Michael Pope declare that they have no conflict of interest. All procedures followed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation (institutional and national) and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, as revised in 2000 (5). Informed consent was obtained from all patients for being included in the study. Additional informed consent was obtained from all patients for which identifying information is included in this article.

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2014 Higher Education Press and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg