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post neurectomies
I had lapro hernia repair in 1996, woke up with terrible pain. Two open surgeries failed to find the cause, both just removed a few tacks. In 1999, after two years in pain, Surgeon Lee Dellon out of Baltimore found the source of the pain, a tack in my pubic bone – he woke me up in dream state during the surgery, touched the tack and I screamed in agony. It was a brilliant way to find the pain source. This tack was impinging on a nerve branch. He saw no mesh, just the tack. He removed it from the bone, not easy he said. He felt after two years I needed pain relief and performed a neurectomy of the ilioinguinal and my genital femoral, this was done open not lapro. I should add that hese nerves were successfully blocked prior to the surgery. The iliohypogastric was not involved, so it was not cut. He left the mesh. I woke up pain free. The numbness has never bothered me but every couple years of being totally pain free I do get a “flair up”. Usually this is brought on by doing something too strenuous, like lifting something heavy, or stretching too far. These flair ups can last anywhere from two weeks to a couple months. A couple have dragged on even longer. perhaps for psychological reasons. They involve aches and pains, some feel mechanical and some feel neuropathic. One Doctor has said these flair up pains are the result of straining the new “inferior” nerves that have innervated the numb areas, growing in over the years from other nerves. Dellon suggests that the any normal strain or pulled muscle in the groin is going to cause this type of reaction. I would be interested in hearing from any others who have had neurectomies to hear what their experience has been. Thanks.
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6 Replies
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[USER=”3025″]doubleneurectomy[/USER]
I am glad that the problem has been identified.
Best wishes for a quick recovery.
regards.
Bill Brown MD -
I wanted to add this preface. I was also examined by another hernia surgeon who felt the mesh was not a problem since I had been pain free for so long a time. I was examined by Dellon who did my neurectomies 20 years ago, he felt confident I had this adductor problem. I had five out of the six symptoms.
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update:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21921769
I then was examined by him and the conclusion was my adductor groin pull was the problem. I had the surgery 3 weeks ago, 11/21/19. Its still early but my groin pains are totally gone, so is the burning on my medial thigh. Dellon did a neurolysis on the obturator nerve, removing scared in fascia. He also resectioned a small sensory nerve that branches off the obturator nerve and innervates the pubic bone. Right now I am dealing with incisional pain and some very mild aches in the thigh. I expect those problems to continue to improve in the weeks ahead. Looking at the big picture I have to consider if I had a groin pull twenty years ago at the same time as my hernia. Everyone focused on the hernia and not on the fact that I had adductor pain that I mentioned right after the lapro. I also have to consider if the lapro repair which created the tack problem in the pubic bone may have somehow started my adductor pain. Perhaps years of avoiding any adduction of the leg set me up for a groin pull situation. Either way I am hoping this surgery has solved the problem ending my recurrent flare ups in the groin, at the adductor insertion and on the medial thigh.
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Thank you both for those replies, much appreciated. I live in Santa Monica and will call your office Dr Towfigh.
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I suspect that the open approach to the laparoscopic mesh repair may have disrupted the mesh repair.
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[USER=”3025″]doubleneurectomy[/USER]
Dear Double.
Ask your local surgeon to inject the mesh with a local anesthetic. If you feel better for a few hours then that would be strong evidence that the mesh is the source of your pain. Then you can decide whether or not you want the mesh removed.
Regards.
Bill Brown MD
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