The one question that you really want to ask is “how are your patients doing after many years?” with regard to chronic pain and/or discomfort. The “standard of success” is non-recurrence, not the patient’s quality of life. Many surgeons will avoid considering the quality of life of the patient, because it is not part of the overall equation at this time. It can’t be seen physically. They typically lose track of their patients and have no idea how they are doing.
So, if your surgeon avoids talking about quality of life, or makes glib comments like “I haven’t heard any bad news”, or, even worse, discounts chronic pain/discomfort as not a real problem, that is a warning sign. The issue is well-documented and easy to study.
Part of a successful surgeon’s skill-set is getting the patient to accept the procedure. Surgeons are in a box right now with little choice for repair methods. The best you can hope for, probably, is to find somebody that understands the situation and knows which of the mesh products have the lowest odds of chronic pain or discomfort, and how to use the mesh in a way which lowers that probability. There are people out there who had mesh implanted 15-20 years ago who were fine until their second implantation more recently. Something is different, either the mesh or the method. It might be that the latest greatest repair methods for minimizing recurrence are actually the cause of the increase in chronic pain.
So, an old-timer who is using the same method for the last 15 years and can say honestly that his/her first patients are in good shape, recurrence-wise and pain-wise, is what I would look for. Good luck. Take a list of questions with you on paper and use it. Once you get in to the medical setting, it’s easy to lose your train of thought.