Abstract:

The surgical treatments for inguinal hernia, obturator hernia, and stress urinary incontinence in females all inevitably involve the crucial step of protecting the obturator vessels.The author explored the anatomy of the obturator vessels, the relationships between the surgeries for inguinal hernia, obturator hernia, and stress urinary incontinence of females and the obturator vessels, as well as various strategies for protecting the obturator vessels in surgical procedures such as transabdominal preperitoneal approach (TAPP) and totally extraperitoneal approach (TEP) for inguinal hernia, different surgical approaches for obturator hernia, and transobturator tension-free vaginal tape obturator technique(TVT-O) for stress urinary incontinence of females.It is summarized that in TAPP and TEP procedures, due to the dissection of the Retzius space， the “corona mortis” vessels， which are branches of the obturator vessels, are exposed anteriorly and medially to the pubis; The hernial sac of the obturator hernia runs through the obturator canal and thus accompanies the obturator vessel and nerve bundle; In the TVT-O procedure for stress urinary incontinence in females, when puncturing the left and right obturator membranes, it is necessary to keep away from the obturator vessel and nerve bundle.Since the surgical procedures for the above three diseases are different, the surgical sites are also correspondingly different,and the relationships between the surgical methods and the obturator vessels are also different.Therefore,the strategies for protecting the obturator vessels during the surgical operation are different.We need to master the anatomy of the obturator vessels proficiently, clarify the different relationships between the surgical methods of the three diseases and the obturator vessels, and make the correct strategies for protecting the obturator vessels during the surgical procedure.

Key words: Hernia, inguinal, Obturator hernia, Stress urinary incontinence, Obturator vessels