See Also
1. Abdominal Hernia
Pathophysiology
1. Type of Ventral Hernia
2. Consists of properitoneal fat (rarely peritoneal sac)
3. Location
  1. Occurs through linea alba (midline)
  2. Occurs below xiphoid process and above Umbilicus
Symptoms
1. Epigastric Pain
2. Pulling sensation on leaning backward
Signs
1. Difficult to detect in obese patients
2. Examine patient in standing position
  1. Run finger down course of linea alba
  2. Detects small midline Nodule
Differential Diagnosis: Epigastric Incarcerated Hernia
1. Peptic Ulcer Disease
2. Biliary Colic
Management: Surgery
1. Suture closure of defect
2. Multiple Epigastric Hernia defects often exist
  1. Adequate linea alba exposure required
  2. Surgeons explore for occult hernias
References
1. Goroll (2000) Primary Care Medicine, p. 431-433
2. Degowin (1987) Diagnostic Examination, p. 489-96
3. Townsend (2001) Sabiston Surgery, Saunders, p. 797

Epigastric hernia (C0019287)
Concepts	Anatomical Abnormality (T190)
ICD10	K43.99, K43.09, K43.19
SnomedCT	236034007, 12217001, 196900007, 289260002, 196876001, 196895008
English	Hernia, epigastric, HERNIA, EPIGASTRIC, Epigastric hernia NOS, epigastric hernia, epigastric hernia (diagnosis), Epigastric hernia, Epigastric hernia NOS (disorder), hernia epigastric, epigastric hernias, Fatty hernia of linea alba, Epigastric hernia (disorder), Epigastric hernia (disorder) [Ambiguous]
Dutch	hernia epigastrica
French	Hernie épigastrique
German	Hernia epigastrica
Italian	Ernia epigastrica
Portuguese	Hérnia epigástrica
Spanish	Hernia epigástrica, Epigastric hernia, Fatty hernia of linea alba, hernia epigástrica (concepto no activo), hernia epigástrica (trastorno), hernia epigástrica, SAI (trastorno), hernia epigástrica, SAI, hernia epigástrica
Japanese	心窩部ヘルニア, ｼﾝｶﾌﾞﾍﾙﾆｱ
Czech	Epigastrická kýla
Hungarian	Epigastrialis sérv
Sources	Derived from the NIH UMLS (Unified Medical Language System)

Family Practice Notebook

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This page was written by Scott Moses, MD, last revised on 10/21/2007 and last published on 5/18/2012.

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