Intervertebral disc hernia extraction is a usual case in our practice, but until recently we haven't come across black hernia. Intervertebral disc hernia is usually white, yellow or brown. Below you can see hernia, that we see during the surgeries.

But some days before we were trying to give explanations to something which was very strange for us. The extracted hernia had black colour.

Both we and our colleagues from different medical centers haven't seen such kind of hernia. It is interesting that even MRI investigation hasn't shown anything extraordinary.

We searched for information and found only two cases: the first one took place in Turkey in 2012 and the second one in India in 2016. Black hernia is the consequence of Alkaptonuria disease which occurs 0,001 percent worldwide. Alkaptonuria is a rare inherited genetic disorder in which the body cannot process the amino acids phenylalanine and tyrosine, which occur in protein. It is caused by a mutation in the HGD gene for the enzyme homogentisate 1,2-dioxygenase.

With the illustration of this case we want to keep aware of all our colleagues not to be surprised and get confused if they meet black hernia in their practice.