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Importance of lipoma of the cord
A hernia is simply a hole in the abdominal wall. It is when something pokes through the hole there is a problem. If intestines poke through the hole, they can get pinched which is what causes a bowel obstruction. If there is only fat in the hole, we call that a lipoma of the cord. A sliding hernia is defined as when intestines are part of the hernia sac, so if you had a small hernia, it was not a slider. It sounds like you had a small hole with some fat in it which we often find when operating on someone with groin pain and no bulge. To fix this you remove the fat and close the hole. The fat does nothing except plug the hole and there are no side effects to removing it. In an open operation it is easier to excise the fat since it originates from inside the body. Once the fat is out of the way, you can see up the hole or put a mesh patch over it. The theoretical disadvantages of the anterior open approach are that sutures are required which can injure nerves or cause tension on nerves which causes pain. When patching the hole from the inside, in a laparoscopic repair, you pull the fat out of the hole from the inside. Since it is still attached to its blood supply, there is no need to remove it. In general, we are talking about something smaller than a grape. After the fat is removed, the hole is covered with a mesh patch. Since the natural pressure of the abdominal contents holds the mesh in place, like a patch between a tire and the tube, sutures are not necessary and there is less risk of injuring a nerve. If this still makes no sense, look at the hernia video on my website, http://www.littlescars.com.