Iatrogenic small bowel perforation during elective laparoscopic intraperitoneal onlay meshplasty leading to intraoperative change of plan: a case report with review of literature

Iatrogenic bowel injury during any surgery, be it open or laparoscopic; is associated with significant morbidity. Moreover, if the said injury occurs in a surgery in which a foreign material is planned to be implanted in the patient’s body as a prosthesis e.g., hernia surgery; the surgical team may have to deviate from its original plan of action. Even in the best of hands, iatrogenic bowel trauma can occur inspite of following best recommended practices. This usually occurs in the setting of dense adhesions of bowel to the parietes. Herein, we present one such case of a 72-year-old lady who was planned for laparoscopic incisional mesh hernioplasty, but had to be subjected to an intraoperative change in plan, due to iatrogenic enterotomy.