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GeneralSurgeryNews article: "Talking to Patients About Mesh"
“Talking to Patients About Mesh – In Age of Social Media and Lawsuits, Surgeons Offer Advice on How to Communicate With Concerned Patients”
https://www.generalsurgerynews.com/In-the-News/Article/01-19/Talking-to-Patients-About-Mesh/53738
Fascinating article in a publication for general surgeons. Apparently a growing number of patients are concerned about hernia mesh after what they find on the internet.
An internet search for ‘hernia repair’ or ‘hernia surgery’ or ‘hernia mesh’ does not exactly paint a positive picture, and studies routinely show that chronic pain risk for groin hernia surgery is often disturbingly high. Even taking negativity bias into consideration (most people don’t get online to rave about an uneventful surgical outcome), you typically do not see the volume or severity of complaints with other common abdominal surgical procedures (c-section, appendectomy, cholecystectomy, umbilical hernia repair with mesh, etc). I wonder why that is?
My personal hunch is that the high chronic pain risk for groin hernia repair is directly related to the innervation of the groin and pelvis, and perhaps some patients simply don’t respond well to having an object placed in proximity to groin and pelvic nerves.
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1 Reply
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Are you “registered” and able to read the full article? I have not tried to register.
This article shows the same problem of grouping all mesh in to one big blob. At least the teaser does. I don’t know why there aren’t surgeons giving detailed reasons about the best mesh material. Do they all see mesh as one entity? Somebody needs to step up and start defining the good mesh from the bad mesh. I also see the inherent bias “for” mesh. Objectively speaking, the sentence should say “for and against” mesh.
There are companies discontinuing mesh products. Why? Let’s talk about that. Are they bad products or do they just have bad marketing groups?
ANUARY 18, 2019 [h=1]Talking to Patients About Mesh[/h] In Age of Social Media and Lawsuits, Surgeons Offer Advice on How to Communicate With Concerned Patients
By Christina Frangou
Boston—With more public attention on the potential complications of mesh, patients are asking more questions of their surgeons: Is mesh safe? Will I have pain? Can I have a repair without mesh?Surgeons need to take time to listen to patient concerns and talk to them about the state of the evidence for hernia mesh, said B. Todd Heniford, MD, the chief of gastrointestinal and minimally invasive surgery at Carolinas Medical Center, in Charlotte, N.C., at the American To read the full story, Register or Login
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