Hernia Surgery: The Best Way to Repair A Hernia

Hernias are weakness in the muscular structure of the wall of the abdomen. This causes a bulge on the abdominal wall. The groin area is most affected by hernias. When a patient suffers from hernia, he experiences pain and swelling somewhere around the abdomen.

Inguinal hernias, hernias in the groin area are best treated with surgery. This is to avoid complications such as an instance characterized when a loop of intestine is trapped tightly by hernias wherein the blood supply to that part of the intestine is cut off. This complication is called strangulation. Hernias that are small and do not come with symptoms do not need surgery. It is best to ask your doctor if there is a need for you to undergo hernia repair surgery.

For adults, if hernia can be reduced, surgery can be done if one prefers to do so. If it can not be reduced, surgery must be done as soon as possible.

Most hernia surgeries are done outpatient. Local, spinal or general anesthesia is used depending on the case. The hernia sac is removed during surgery. Most often, the opening of the inguinal canal is closed using stitches. For adult surgery, synthetic patches are becoming standard for hernia surgery. These patches are used to strengthen the abdominal wall and avoid hernias from occurring again. Before, these were used only for hernias that are huge and hard to repair.

There are certain situations when laparoscopic surgery is more advantageous over open surgery for hernia. When there is a need for you to go home immediately after the surgery, laparoscopic is best for you. A hernia that is recurring needs to be repaired and it can be easily repaired through laparoscopic surgery since the instruments being used do not go through the mesh from the hernia repair done previously.

The risk of having a recurrent hernia after surgery depends on the experience of the surgeon, the type of hernia, the procedure of the surgery and the age and overall health of the patient.

When a surgeon is experienced and performs the surgery well especially laparoscopic techniques, risk of the hernia coming back is low. Out of 100 open surgeries done, 1 to 10 after these surgeries have the chance of a hernia recurring. As for laparoscopic surgeries, 10% of hernias repaired recur. Some studies show that as low as 0.25% to 2% are the recurrence rates for laparoscopic surgeries.