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IH Surgery: A Young Profession: So Beware
Despite that IH surgery has been performed at least for 150 years or more, it apparently is a young field. Judging from a very informative and readable article titled, “How Hernias Can Cause Pelvic Pain”
https://pelvicpainrehab.com/female-pelvic-pain/3565/hernia-may-cause-pelvic-pain/
the IH repair field seems rather young. In this article Dr. Towfigh shares her secrets of her practice with other members of the medical community. A good read even for the layperson. Besides giving a clear understanding about diagnosis and treatment, I was struck how this article seems to be early spadework in the profession. And if I’m correct, then no wonder we find the controversies raised here in herniatalk (HT), for this is an unbelievably young field. What were surgeons doing back in the 20th century? 🙂
Perhaps many of them later jumped ship onto the mesh bandwagon, essentially creating a brand new field that benefits little from the past—-really a revolution. Spurred on by polymer technologies of just recent development, surgeons today do not have great wealth of knowledge to draw upon. How can they for the field is mainly a 21st century endeavor? Elsewhere for example Dr Towfigh reports that there is no perfect mesh and that the matching of mesh with patient is still more art than science. Yet from my experience with other mesh surgeons, there appears to be no attempt at matching; rather it seems more a matter of expediency—-whatever material mesh is provided by the hospital. The mesh shown me by these surgeons were not the same; yet they all shared the same high confidence in what they do. They also commonly did not seem much aware of mesh issues or were unwilling to talk about them. Fellow HT member Good Intentions and others inform us that all mesh are not equal, and some quite harmful, at least as determined by courts of law. In short, the newness of mainstream IH surgery does not warrant the glitzy advertising of mesh directed at surgeons and patients. Believe me as a patient, I find reading these advertisements so enticing that I must pinch myself back to reality. It would be worthwhile if members here created a critical guide how to effectively read these advertisements. -
1 Reply
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What a great post!
And yes, I’m proud of that blog post.
But this is the plight of all of medicine. We are in a constant state of motion, learning new things and looking back on past successes and failures and learning from them.
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