Inguinal Hernia surgery and Sports

[Unknown Member]

[USER=”2899″]PeterC[/USER] how long have you had your inguinal mesh ? Was it lap or open ? Any concern on neurectomy ? Good luck in Feb.

[Alephy]

[USER=”2899″]PeterC[/USER] when you said ‘( I know of people whose inguinal hernia have healed after a long time and they were in optimal shape/balance) ‘ you meant it took people a long time to recover from surgery despite being in optimal shape/balance? Or did they recover without any surgery somehow? (mind you, I ask out of curiosity, I don’t think this would apply to me anyway)

[Alephy]

This is interesting…you mean they healed without surgery? Sports hernia or a real one? In any case I totally agree that the human body is incredible

[PeterC]

quote Alephy:

Well I will not have a mesh for sure…I have urticaria and when that kicks in it is a REAL problem. I guess no surgeon would risk my life because of a reaction against the mesh (the ones I am supposed to see next month know that, and I will surely tell the one I am going to see next Wednesday). I am considering though the mesh that gets completely absorbed (so it’s gone after a while), although that one also can cause adhesions and possible problems?
In any case permanent/semi permanent mesh is not an option for me, everything else is, provided I can train as before (or close to as before)…
BTW did you have your mesh removed in the end? I guess for you the problem is even more serious as you depend on a truly high level functioning body!
What drives me crazy is that on the one hand there is this buzz of what incredible things medicine will accomplish in the near future, and on the other they cannot really fix a knee or an hernia…sounds like we can to the moon, but cannot feed everybody on the planet

I’m having surgery with Dr.Brown on Feb 7th to remove it yes. I’ve had a 2 cm tear on the opposite side for the whole 2 years as well so I’m just getting that side fixed (open – pure tissue) and the mesh removed/whatever else is there to fix on that side at the same time. I just got to a point where I can’t/don’t want to tolerate the pain/discomfort anymore. I believe the body is incredible and can heal and recover from most everything ( I know of people whose inguinal hernia have healed after a long time and they were in optimal shape/balance) – but not from a foreign body being in there.

[Alephy]

Well I will not have a mesh for sure…I have urticaria and when that kicks in it is a REAL problem. I guess no surgeon would risk my life because of a reaction against the mesh (the ones I am supposed to see next month know that, and I will surely tell the one I am going to see next Wednesday). I am considering though the mesh that gets completely absorbed (so it’s gone after a while), although that one also can cause adhesions and possible problems?
In any case permanent/semi permanent mesh is not an option for me, everything else is, provided I can train as before (or close to as before)…
BTW did you have your mesh removed in the end? I guess for you the problem is even more serious as you depend on a truly high level functioning body!
What drives me crazy is that on the one hand there is this buzz of what incredible things medicine will accomplish in the near future, and on the other they cannot really fix a knee or an hernia…sounds like we can to the moon, but cannot feed everybody on the planet

[PeterC]

quote Alephy:

So then with a mesh? Is this for the shorter recovery after the surgery or also in the long term, as far as strength and flexibility of the repair are concerned?

For what its worth – a quick google search will show you that most athletes go to Dr. Meyers or Dr. Brown who both specialize in open non-mesh options. If EVERYTHING ELSE in your body is 100% aligned and works as intended and they use a small amount of mesh – I can see the mesh not being a problem/the laparoscopic option being good.

I’m a professional dancer and I’ve had mesh surgery and not only did they not fix the original issue (which was below) – the mesh did get super tight and caused more pain and more issues. 10/10 would not recommend. Being in another support group for hernias/sports hernias etc – I’ve seen ONE person say they recovered 100% with Mesh and a whole lot more have unreal complications. I would not risk it.

From experience – you’d rather not get mesh because then you still have a ton of options. Once the mesh is in – and you get issues – its a whole new set of problems you do not want to deal with.

[Good intentions]

Here is another much more recent article. It might the best I have seen as far as addressing all of the issues commonly discussed on this forum. Dr. Towfigh participates. In the end it still comes down to collecting relevant information. Degraded quality of life is the reason that people see their doctors. We are not machines or livestock.

Sorry if I my other post offended so much that you couldn’t release it. But you can see in this professionally written article, the same things that I wrote about. We need useful data with numbers. Thank you.

https://www.generalsurgerynews.com/I…B8C3C8A9101426

[Good intentions]

quote drtowfigh:

See pinned post re AHSQC. It’s the only effort in US to get longterm mesh specific and repair specific data. We need more surgeons to participate. Plus we need patients to log in their longterm data.
danish and Swedish and German registries are pretty robust for longterm data and they publish their results.

The effort is there, apparently, but where are the results that a layperson can use? There is nothing useful to a patient doing research.

[Good intentions]

Click “cancel” and you should be able to read this article, below. It’s fascinating and frightening to see how inconsistent the field is. There is no measurement or tracking of results. Note also the recognition of the failure of the FDA”s oversight/regulatory role. The article is from 2016, but not much has changed. Government oversight has certainly gotten worse, considering the overall state of things.

https://www.generalsurgerynews.com/A…rticleID=34826

[drtowfigh]

See pinned post re AHSQC. It’s the only effort in US to get longterm mesh specific and repair specific data. We need more surgeons to participate. Plus we need patients to log in their longterm data.
danish and Swedish and German registries are pretty robust for longterm data and they publish their results.

[Good intentions]

Dr. Brown uses a non-mesh repair method on professional athletes. They seem to keep coming to him, I assume that the results are good. [USER=”2580″]DrBrown[/USER]

One major problem with trying to choose the best method of repair is that there is no reliable long-term data available to the public. No way to know if “majority” means 75% or 99%. Or what the bad results are, life-changing pain or just discomfort.

At least one well-known hernia repair specialist, Dr. Heniford, has recognized this and called for a true registry of products (not a pseudo-registry like Ethicon’s) that would track real-world long-term results of each product type. As far as I can tell the effort got no traction at all. The device makers are not interested in knowing that their products are good, just that they keep selling at a good rate with low lawsuit payments, I assume. It’s just the reality of our market system. “Charge what the market will allow and caveat emptor are the basics of business in America.

I just found a recent article quoting Dr. Heniford. It looks like he has climbed back on to the mesh wagon, with vague terms about long-term outcomes. Disappointing, But he says “our outcomes” not patient outcomes. Fighting the “trend” with words, communication, instead of real data. The pressure to conform must be incredible.

https://www.mdedge.com/surgery/article/197533/hernia/anti-mesh-trend-may-be-felt-surgeons-doing-hernia-repairs

[drtowfigh]

Both are the positive values of laparoscopic surgery.

[Alephy]

So then with a mesh? Is this for the shorter recovery after the surgery or also in the long term, as far as strength and flexibility of the repair are concerned?

[drtowfigh]

Laparoscopy repair is the best option for most athletes.