Reply To: Diagnosed with Hernias via CT scan only, no bulges or symptoms, huh?

[Good intentions]

quote ajm222:

i’ll say that i know several people personally who had mesh repair and haven’t had any further issues. some of these had the surgery done 5 or ten years ago, and some almost 20. so i guess it depends. the bigger question is: is non-mesh repair any better.

Seems like you, and many of us, might be getting overwhelmed by all of the information out there, and are trying to generalize it down to something useful. You’ve distilled everything down to “mesh repair” and there might be much more to it than just mesh.

Saying that “all mesh is bad” is not good enough to make progress in getting rid of the bad materials and methods. Many people are happy with their mesh implantations. But many are not. We need to find the correlation between the unhappy people and the materials/methods used.

If you read through all of the mesh removal and mesh problems threads on the site you’ll find that many, 4 of 9 for removal, are for Bard 3D Max. I had problems with Bard Soft Mesh. Bard has a very large presence in the mesh market place. Many surgeons are stuck using the material of the device maker with which their organization has a contract, and contracts are awarded based on cost. So you could find that experienced expert surgeon but he/she will be inclined to use what their organization has contracted to use. One more way the big device makers can control the situation. Read the article in this link, from just two years ago, and you might rethink who you choose. There’s a definite view of “any and all mesh is good”, and “all that matters is surgeon’s skill”. It’s actually scary to read, considering all. http://www.generalsurgerynews.com/Ar…rticleID=34826

Alternatively, if all mesh really is the same, then the 15-20% chronic pain number is your chance of getting it. If you thought you had a 1 in 6 chance of chronic pain would that sway your decision? Because without a correlation to specific brands of material, that’s where we’re at. Take a single die and roll it one time.

So, besides the general advice to find a happy person and use their surgeon, it would be reasonable to avoid Bard 3D Max. It seems to be one that often causes problems.

Good luck. Whatever you do, don’t just decide to roll the dice and see what happens. There are no do-overs.