lingua hernia laproscopic mesh

[Good intentions]

quote tenreasy:

Is it because of the new power of social media that the horror stories are distorting the actual success rate of mesh?

Numerous professional studies seem to show that somewhere between 10 – 20% of “mesh” hernia repair patients will have chronic pain. I have posted links to several on the forum. These are not internet anecdotes, but actual survey or mesh repair registry data. Somehow, for some reason, the focus is on the 80 – 20% that don’t report pain, as proof that mesh is the best solution. The industry has gone from concern about a 2 to 5% recurrence rate to being okay with a 10 – 20% failure rate, if you define chronic pain as failure. That seems to be the disconnect – chronic pain is not considered a failure. Certain studies suggest that even the recurrence rate is worse with mesh.

The repair industry and device makers have committed much time and money to developing the mesh repair market. The best that you can do is to is to make your surgeon show you that their method does not result in chronic pain. They can stay in touch with their patients via many different means. There is no reason not to know, directly, how their former patients are doing. If they don’t know, or if they waffle or say that they haven’t heard anything bad, then search for a different surgeon. There do seem to be combinations of material and method that give good results. But they are blended together with the bad materials and methods. Which means, in sum, that there are combinations of material and method that are actually much worse than 10-20%.

One of my big mistakes was in not trusting my sense that my surgeon wasn’t telling me something. He actually said to me that he had changed his method from just the previous year, so that the mesh couldn’t move at all. I wanted to believe in him so I assumed that he was fine-tuning an almost perfected technique. In retrospect, I think it meant that he had had problems in the past.

Don’t be afraid to ask your surgeon hard questions. And don’t take “you’ll be fine” as an acceptable answer. Every hernia repair surgeon should be aware of this issue and should be ready with good solid data supporting their method.

[scaredtodeath]

I wish I had a good answer for you my friend I’m in the same boat and don’t know what to think