Lower abdominal pain of acute onset in young women with a negative pregnancy test is a frequent reason for referral to the general surgical team and the differential diagnoses include acute appendicitis, complicated ovarian cysts and pelvic inflammatory disease. Intestinal and mesenteric cystic disease is a rare entity and less than half of cases present acutely. We present a case of a 25-year-old woman who underwent diagnostic laparoscopy for acute lower abdominal pain and was diagnosed with a ruptured, infected mesenteric cyst.