-
HERNIA FIELD TURNED UPSIDE DOWN
Surgery load for surgeons— whether high or low– is vital: “Several studies and analyses have found that physicians who do not perform a procedure frequently have higher rates of post-surgical complications and deaths” (Varn, 2020). It seems intuitive that highly experienced surgeons both by their breath of career and their frequency of surgery are preferable to surgerons with much less experience. Shockingly I found a highly touted medical study of 22,000 cases aimed to provide data for chronic pain etc. was fully based on surgeons with low-volume loads (50 or less a year).
https://herniatalk.com/forums/topic/patient-reported-rates-of-chronic-pain-and-recurrence-after-groin-hernia-repair/
Even the most experienced were only doing approximately 5 hernia surgeries a month. Specialists talked about here at HT do at least 3x that!I myself am new to the subject of herniae so have read few medical research studies, but I believe that the low-volume study referenced is probably unique for including surgeon load as a factor of success. And because most studies are likely based on populations found in general hospitals, we can deduce that many of these studies are low-surgeon-load studies as well. If true, it turns the hernia field upside down.
Assuming that Varn’s (2020) findings are valid, then what we thought about chronic pain rates and recurrence rates must be re-thought in terms of what can be expected by highly experienced specialist surgeons. The lookout especially for pure tissue repair never looked better!
It would be very useful for HT if Members who have had poor outcomes of surgery report to us how experienced their surgeons were. This might not be easy to know. As a starter, it would be helpful to know if the surgery was performed at a “general hospital.” Could it be that many of the terrible outcomes reported here come from GHs? I know some do not so I am not surprised that some are associated with specialists as well. (I call a “specialist,” one who is in private practice solely doing hernia surgeries.) Please share what you can tell us.
- This discussion was modified 1 year, 7 months ago by pinto.
Patient-reported rates of chronic pain and recurrence after groin hernia repair
Log in to reply.