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New no mesh surgery in Korea?
I’ve been searching the net for various inguinal hernia surgery options.
Came across a Hospital in Korea that offers an open repair of inguinal hernias without mesh. The Hospital has a fairly good English section for details on the hernia surgery.
http://global.gipumhospital.com/english/hernia/no-mesh-hernia-center.html
The Gipum hospital wants to be the no 1 hernia reair clinic in the world surpassing the Shouldice clininc in Canada.
After searching the web for more information on the no mesh repair technique by Dr Kang, I cannot find any English information anywhere on the net about it. No recipients accounts or anything.
Thought id mention this method here to open up discussion and critique about it. I am not associated with the Gipum hospital in any capacity whatsoever.
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17 Replies
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quote Chaunce1234:[USER=”2019″]drkang[/USER] Thanks again for the response, and I understand what you are saying. From a patients perspective, I can hope you present your method and results as I think you have a lot of value to add to the international surgical community and to future patients.Chaunce1234 i do understand what you understand LOL
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I am a patient of Dr. Kang and I just wanted to share my experience to hopefully provide some information for anyone considering having Dr. Kang repair their hernia. In April 2018, I went to Dr. Kang at Gibbeum Hospital in Seoul, South Korea. I am an American, but I currently live and work in South Korea. Prior to going to Dr. Kang, I was having discomfort in my lower right abdomen and testicles. I later started to notice a bulge on the right side of my lower abdomen. I was concerned that I was developing a hernia and went to a hospital near where I live in Korea to be looked at by the general surgeon there.
I was diagnosed with an inguinal hernia and it was recommended to me to have a surgery that would require mesh. I didn’t like the idea of having synthetic material sewn into my body, but I was not sure of the alternatives. I mentioned my diagnosis to one of coworkers, who is Korean, and he recommended that I go to Dr. Kang, who performs open hernia repairs without mesh. I read through the hospital website, watched some videos about Dr. Kang and read some posts on Herniatalk.com. Although I do not live in Seoul, I decided that going to Dr. Kang was my best option because he specializes in hernia repair and performs the surgery without mesh. My coworker was kind enough to call the hospital for me to schedule my surgery, however you can make an appointment through the Gibbeum Hospital website or by calling the hospital.
Upon my arrival at the Hospital I was met by the hospital interpreter/chaplain, Stephen Kwon, who spent some time studying in America and speaks fluent English. He helped me go through all the steps and paperwork and guided me around the hospital. I met with Dr. Kang who evaluated me and then sent me for two types of imaging. I believe one was an ultrasound and the other was some sort of X-Ray. The woman who operated the ultrasound equipment seemed very proficient at what she was doing and checked both sides to see if I had a bilateral herniation, which I did not. Everything was taken care of more quickly then I have seen in American hospitals.
After that I met with Dr. Kang again to go over the imaging. He said the imaging confirmed that I had a hernia and he asked if I would like to have the hernia repaired that day. Dr. Kang uses his own method of open inguinal hernia repair without the use of mesh. Prior to the surgery, I was given the option to have the incision closed with an adhesive rather than stitches, which was a little more expensive. I went with the adhesive and in hindsight I feel that I made the right decision. The adhesive comes off naturally so I did not have to go back to Seoul to have the sutures removed and the scar is supposedly less noticeable with the adhesive than with sutures. I also had the option to stay over at the hospital that night and be discharged in the morning, which I decided to do.
I was brought to the room I would be staying in overnight. Some other patients who would be having or already had the same procedure done that day were already there. I believe Dr. Kang does about 6 of these surgeries each day. I changed into the hospital clothing and the head nurse put an IV in my arm. Soon after I was brought to the surgical room. The procedure went pretty quickly and probably only lasted about 20-30 minutes. I apparently and had a less common type of hernia, know as a sliding hernia, which lacks a hernia sack and is a larger hernia. Dr. Kang said that the rate of reoccurrence for a sliding hernia is higher, however his technique is much better for this kind of hernia then a mesh surgery.
That night I stayed at the hospital and of course had some discomfort, but no more then what I would expect for this type of procedure. The hospital meal that was served for dinner was excellent and consisted of restaurant quality food, unlike hospital food I have seen in America. The next morning Dr. Kang came to check on me and discharge me. He game me a copy of his book on hernias, although my Korean language skills are not good enough for me to read it. He said the recovery time should be two weeks and within two weeks I was definitely feeling 90% recovered.
Before I was discharged the nurse gave me extra gauze to cover the incision, a few pills for the pain and some stool softener so I wouldn’t squeeze too hard when going to the bathroom. I had my surgery on a Friday morning, took the train home on Saturday, rested Sunday and was able to go into work on Monday. Over the past few months I have been monitoring the healing and the scar seems to be becoming less and less noticeable as time goes on, both visibly and to the touch. I did have some swelling post surgery, which from my understanding is normal and that has continued to return to normal over the past few months.
My experience at Gibbeum Hospital was extremely positive. The staff was very helpful, friendly and seemed very competent with what they were doing. This was the first time I had ever needed surgery and I did not have any family or friends with me at the hospital, however I still felt very comfortable because of the staff and Stephen Kwon’s help. I am very thankful that I was able to have a Doctor as experienced as Dr. Kang as my surgeon. I hope I will not develop any additional hernias in the future, however if I do, I plan on going back to Gibbeum Hospital to have any repairs done by Dr. Kang.
If you are not from Korea, but are interested in going to Dr. Kang for your hernia surgery, you can contact Stephen Kwon or Gibbeum Hospital. Stephen Kwon was extremely helpful and can help you schedule your surgery and even help you with hotels and transportation if you need it.
http://www.gibbeum.com/about/Gibbeum-Hospital.html#Non-Mesh+Hernia+Center
Call from overseas: (82)-10-8253-8699
Email address: stephen9kwon@daum.net
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quote Chaunce1234:[USER=”2019″]drkang[/USER] Thanks again for the response, and I understand what you are saying. From a patients perspective, I can hope you present your method and results as I think you have a lot of value to add to the international surgical community and to future patients.
Hi Chaunce1234,
I appreciate your encouragement and support. I respect you for your large contribution with vast knowledge in helping hernia patients on this forum. At first I thought you were a doctor.
I myself have a lot of expectations for my method, and I believe it will help hernia patients over the globe. As I mentioned, I will publish a thesis late next year and share my experience and surgical method with other doctors.
Thank you! -
quote drkang:Hi Chaunce1234,
I as well feel that I should officially present my surgical method some day. I have performed non-mesh inguinal hernia repair for the past 5 years but it was around the end of last year that I ultimately finalized my method. I wish to present the results of my finalized non-mesh inguinal hernia repair. So I plan to follow up for one year and publish my thesis along with surgery results and everything about my surgical method around the second half of next year. It is a rather sensitive issue at hand than what ordinary people think concerning teaching and learning surgical methods without ever having acquainted each other or without there being some sort of cause. Of course, I am willing to explain in detail to doctors who are interested in my method but I humble myself to approach first to offer to explain. They also don’t have objective data on the results of my method yet so I doubt that they will be interested. Furthermore, Dr. Towfigh has already great achievements in her own field as a laparoscopic hernia surgeon and is still actively playing an important role. So it would be terribly presumptuous of me to try to teach her something. I believe it is best shot to publish my thesis and then naturally share my surgical method to those that are interest.
[USER=”2019″]drkang[/USER] Thanks again for the response, and I understand what you are saying. From a patients perspective, I can hope you present your method and results as I think you have a lot of value to add to the international surgical community and to future patients.
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quote Chaunce1234:[USER=”2019″]drkang[/USER] I would echo what [USER=”2533″]Jimbohen[/USER] said and kindly request that you share your particular experiences and details of your surgical approach with some US-based surgeons so they too can learn from your technique. I imagine both Dr William Brown and Dr Shirin Towfigh [USER=”935″]drtowfigh[/USER] would be receptive to learning more and perhaps applying it themselves as they are two of the more open-minded hernia surgeons in the USA.
With luck, perhaps the repair can become widely adopted and named after you – The Kang Repair! – and it could be expanded to other patients around the world who are unable to travel to South Korea for your expertise.
Thank you for the consideration and responses.
Hi Chaunce1234,
I as well feel that I should officially present my surgical method some day. I have performed non-mesh inguinal hernia repair for the past 5 years but it was around the end of last year that I ultimately finalized my method. I wish to present the results of my finalized non-mesh inguinal hernia repair. So I plan to follow up for one year and publish my thesis along with surgery results and everything about my surgical method around the second half of next year. It is a rather sensitive issue at hand than what ordinary people think concerning teaching and learning surgical methods without ever having acquainted each other or without there being some sort of cause. Of course, I am willing to explain in detail to doctors who are interested in my method but I humble myself to approach first to offer to explain. They also don’t have objective data on the results of my method yet so I doubt that they will be interested. Furthermore, Dr. Towfigh has already great achievements in her own field as a laparoscopic hernia surgeon and is still actively playing an important role. So it would be terribly presumptuous of me to try to teach her something. I believe it is best shot to publish my thesis and then naturally share my surgical method to those that are interest.
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quote Jimbohen:Hello Dr. Kang,
I’ve been reading your posted comments and you’re arguments are very persuasive. I would come to Korea to have you repair my indirect inguinal hernia if I could afford to but I can’t. Do you perform the repairs yourself or just other surgeons under your supervision? Who the best and most talented surgeon on your staff aside from yourself. Since you may now have to devote most of your time operating your clinic rather than on patients.
You seem very sincere in your desire to help hernia sufferers regardless of their country and that’s very commendable. Since my health insurance will cover most of the cost. I can afford to see Dr. William H. Brown mentioned above as the doctor that’s now doing the Marcy repair in Fremont, California, USA. Since we can all learn something from each other and you’re both performing the non-mesh Marcy repair. I implore you to contact him without delay and discuss the nuances of your modified Marcy repair for indirect hernias and your modified Shouldice/Desarda repair for direct hernias. You could put your heads together and exchange thoughts and ideas and thereby sharpen each others swords or scalpels. Doing so for the very noble and compassionate cause of advancing hernia repair to greatly improve patient outcomes and thereby save many lives.
I assure you he didn’t put me up to this but I think he would be very receptive to it. Because, like yourself and a few others, he’s a rare breed who’s dedicated to making his patients well rather than making big pharma wealthy by implanting their often devastatingly harmful mesh time bombs.
Hi Jimbohen,
After reading your writing, I have thoroughly checked Dr. William Brown’s website. I could clearly see that he supports non-mesh inguinal hernia repair.
In his explanation of Marcy repair, I can see that he has abundant understanding, experience and confidence on it. This makes me worried whether he’ll be interested in my surgical method. There are of course different aspects compared to my indirect inguinal hernia repair. However, details of surgical methods can cause misunderstandings when discussed in simple conversations. So it is very difficult to completely understand and conduct the method.
If however he is interested, I am willing to try my best to explain my repair, if he want, though.
One thing that confuses me is that he seems to introduce himself as a sports hernia specialist rather than a hernia surgeon. Sports hernia is a completely different illness from inguinal hernia and I treat sports hernia and inguinal hernia differently. Plus, I am currently personally performing 6 non-mesh inguinal hernia repair on average every day. My 6 staff surgeons are also fully capable of performing hernia repair. Our hospital mainly treats inguinal hernia but we also treat femoral hernia, umbilical hernia, epigastric hernia, incisional hernia and sports hernia. -
[USER=”2019″]drkang[/USER] I would echo what [USER=”2533″]Jimbohen[/USER] said and kindly request that you share your particular experiences and details of your surgical approach with some US-based surgeons so they too can learn from your technique. I imagine both Dr William Brown and Dr Shirin Towfigh [USER=”935″]drtowfigh[/USER] would be receptive to learning more and perhaps applying it themselves as they are two of the more open-minded hernia surgeons in the USA.
With luck, perhaps the repair can become widely adopted and named after you – The Kang Repair! – and it could be expanded to other patients around the world who are unable to travel to South Korea for your expertise.
Thank you for the consideration and responses.
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Hello Dr. Kang,
I’ve been reading your posted comments and you’re arguments are very persuasive. I would come to Korea to have you repair my indirect inguinal hernia if I could afford to but I can’t. Do you perform the repairs yourself or just other surgeons under your supervision? Who the best and most talented surgeon on your staff aside from yourself. Since you may now have to devote most of your time operating your clinic rather than on patients.
You seem very sincere in your desire to help hernia sufferers regardless of their country and that’s very commendable. Since my health insurance will cover most of the cost. I can afford to see Dr. William H. Brown mentioned above as the doctor that’s now doing the Marcy repair in Fremont, California, USA. Since we can all learn something from each other and you’re both performing the non-mesh Marcy repair. I implore you to contact him without delay and discuss the nuances of your modified Marcy repair for indirect hernias and your modified Shouldice/Desarda repair for direct hernias. You could put your heads together and exchange thoughts and ideas and thereby sharpen each others swords or scalpels. Doing so for the very noble and compassionate cause of advancing hernia repair to greatly improve patient outcomes and thereby save many lives.
I assure you he didn’t put me up to this but I think he would be very receptive to it. Because, like yourself and a few others, he’s a rare breed who’s dedicated to making his patients well rather than making big pharma wealthy by implanting their often devastatingly harmful mesh time bombs.
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Hi Jeremy B,
For a direct inguinal hernia, I perform a different repair method.
That is fundamentally similar to Shouldice repair; except it has been very simplified. -
Dr Towfigh & Dr Kang; Dr. Brown: http://www.sportshernia.com executes Marcy repair in adults. I believe it must be an Indirect hernia for this repair and maybe some other requirements.
I am very interested in this repair as it seems like it would be much less invasive than anything i’ve seen yet.
Is is possible the unsuccessful scenarios were in conjunction direct hernias? -
Welcome to our Forum, Dr. Kang!!
Lovely to hear more about your procedure.
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My name is Jack Wilkerson. I am the patient referred to earlier in this discussion. I just came in from mowing most of a 2 acre property at home because of an impending rainstorm. This is 48 days after my hernia repair by Dr. Kang listed above. I started mowing the property on day 10 although I ran the mower slowly to avoid getting bounced around. I resumed my daily bicycle rides of 5 to 10 miles per day on day 23 with no pain or strain. I declined narcotic pain killers after surgery so I would feel pain if I strained the wound. Basically I had to learn the first 2 weeks how to sit down in bed and swing my legs up or down. There was no real pain, just an ache. A sudden cough was my only difficulty to keep it from causing abdominal pressure on the surgery site. I learned to expel without pressure. On day 3 I felt good enough to walk about 3 miles going to tourist sites in Seoul all day. About 5 miles the next day. On day 6 after surgery we traveled from Seoul to Los Angeles with about 22 hours traveling time connecting through Tokyo. I have no problem lifting 50 lb. containers. I have planted over 160 containers the past 2 weeks. There is a small bump under the skin where Dr. Kang sewed up the opening. That has declined steadily to maybe 2mm high by 12mm long under the skin so I don’t notice it either through pain or strain. So far everything about the surgery quality and experience is far above average. I find it strange that surgeons continue to claim Mesh Hernia surgery has lower complications. That reply is not true. I have surveyed friends and neighbors and everyone I meet. So far the failure rate in my local surveys is over 50%. One neighbor has had it done 4 times and his surgeon will not do it again even though he needs to for pain. Another friend has had it done 5 times. Only one person has told me he had mesh surgery once. He is sedentary. One FDA report indicates 47%. The constant TV commercials from dozens of Attorneys suing surgeons and Mesh suppliers on our local stations for pain and suffering indicate a burgeoning industry. Last week I even saw a clearing house phone number for nationwide teams of attorneys to sue surgeons. Because of my experience in medical product design and OR equipment, I find the failure rate to be unbelievable. How is it the Medical Malpractice Insurance companies have not banned the practice of mesh surgery? If attorneys did not win their lawsuits, the number would be limited to 1 or 2 firms, not dozens and growing. Surgeons must not continue to listen to Mesh Providers Reps phony claims. Follow up your patients. There should be no pain 2 weeks later unless the product is defective by design.
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I myself am the hernia surgeon Dr. Kang whom Rob mentioned here.
Rob sent an email to our hospital chaplain Stephen who works as an English language interpreter.
I knew HerniaTalk for the first time through him and now I have joined it as a member.
Most of all I show great respect to the staff who run the excellent site for hernia patients,
especially to Dr. Towfigh who answers the questions of the people so earnestly.I am a 62 year old surgeon in S. Korea who has had more than 15,000 hernia surgery cases including about 6,000 new meshless hernia repairs. (Jack mentioned more than 10,000 hernia cases but the figure includes my whole hernia repairs for last 12 years in my new hospital)
Before the year 2000 I did many times Bassini or McVay operation.
From 2000 to 2012, I did a lot of Open mesh hernia repair like Mesh plug or Lichtenstein.But as we know the posterior repair like Bassini has high recurrence rate and mesh operation has a big problem of mesh complication.
I began to ponder what the best inguinal hernia repair would be and how to solve all those problems. In the middle of year 2012 I devised a new method.It is true that the new method is similar to the idea of Marcy that Dr. Towfigh mentioned.
But my method was not based on Marcy’’s from the beginning.
I studied at first with the goal of tensionless and meshless repair and as a result it turned into one that is similar to Marcy operation.
By my lack of knowledge, frankly speaking, I knew Marcy operation after I had devised my repair method.
Even now I don’’t know exactly the procedure of original Marcy operation.
Therefore I am not able to explain exactly what is similar and what is not, when my method is compared to Marcy’’s.And I don’’t know exactly if Marcy operation works for adult or not.
What I know is that more than 99% of about 6,000 patients since 2012 who have gone through the hernia operation of my new method have no recurrence and have no problem in their lives.According to Rob’s expression, it is too good to be true. But it is true whether it is too good or not.
With regard to the recurrence rate the earlier result was 0.2%
but recently by telephone interview of the patients whose surgeries are longer than a year old the rate turned into 0.5%.I continue to improve my method as time goes. So the repairs in the beginning and now are different somewhat. I expect the better result for the future. I am positive.
There are patients occasionally who express a bit of pain for a few months after surgery but there are none who continues to have the follow-up for pain.
The method has been 5 years so far and I can’’t say the long term result for now
but I am much excited and greatly encouraged for the new method of mine for the future.I again thank Rob and Dr Towfigh so much and I am delighted to know HerniaTalk
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Good video interview of a guy from Florida who had a meshless hernia repair by Dr Kang at Gipum Hospital, Korea very recently.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O6iTnQYK4ig
Interview with same man on Mesh news desk website:
http://www.meshmedicaldevicenewsdesk.com/jack-wilkerson-seeks-hernia-surgery-seoul-s-korea/
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Yup. Marcy repair. Single stitch to close the defect. Doesn’t work for adults.
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Sounds good Dr Towfigh
Here is a youtube video about the procedure, it appears to be Russian/Korean. You may be able to glean something out of this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J98MDQf6xAI
This is another longer video in Korean:
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Let me ask my colleagues. I have never met Dr Kang or heard about any of his statistics at our surgical conferences.
Sounds like Ike he is doing a Marcy repair, which we know doesn’t work for adults.
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