An incarcerated appendix: report of three cases and a review of the literature.

We came across three rare cases of incarcerated hernia, with different presentations. The first case was an elderly female, who presented with an incarcerated incisional hernia on the right lower iliac region diagnosed on contrast enhanced computed tomography (CT); the contents were the small bowel and the perforated tip of the appendix. In the second case of inguinal incarcerated hernia, ultrasonography showed the inflammed appendix in the subcutaneous plane of the hernial sac, which is very rarely diagnosed pre-operatively and was confirmed during surgery. Inflammed appendix with gangrenous tip was found in the inguinal hernial sac. In yet another case of incarcerated inguinal hernia, the contents were a gangrenous part of the ascending colon and transverse colon, with the tip of the inflamed appendix--also only rarely observed. The colon extended to the scrotum in this case. We could find no description within the existing medical literature on either transverse or ascending colon as contents in inguinal hernia although transverse colon alone has been reported in four cases. The surgical options for dealing with the appendix in an Amyand's hernia depend on the mode of presentation. The presence of a normal appendix does not require an appendicectomy to be performed, but its removal is necessary if inflamed.