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Need Non Mesh Surgery I have autoimmune
I have an ingunial hernia above my belly button that was from a laparoscopic appendectomy I had 5 months ago.
I’m terrified of mesh. I have autoimmune issues and medical ptsd from past traumas.
When my ptsd flares it’s all physiological and my autoimmune flares. It took 4 months to recover from appendectomy and I’m sure the hernia was caused by trauma and my bodies reaction.
I met with a surgeon and told him I didn’t think my body would be ok with a foreign object. I know my body.
He said you’ll be fine. First off being invalidated with no information triggers me.
He won’t be the surgeon for me.
I asked my FB friends and 3 people said they had existing autoimmune that has caused significant issues with the mesh. 1 person responded they had no issues and no autoimmune.
I don’t know what to do. I live in CA but looks like pay out of pocket for non mesh.
Drs, patients what is your experience of existing autoimmune and a nervous system that goes into fight flight high stress during and after surgical procedures.
I’m so terrified and I can’t sleep or eat.
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10 Replies
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TelaBio just finished a two year study on just 100 patients, with 20 supplying information at two years. Just like the synthetic meshes, the focus is on recurrence. No mention of quality of life. Chronic pain, discomfort, ability to work and play. Just recurrence, and no return for problems. It’s one of those things that should be proclaimed loudly as a benefit over synthetic mesh. The initial study goal included “patient reported outcomes”, but there are none in the final report. No explanation why, just not reported. I hate to be negative but I do similar work in a different field and the absence of expected data is usually not a good sign. Why don’t they report the part that is most important to the patient?
The journal reports are worth reading. The material does look promising but now that it has been commercialized and the TelaBio company is part of the stock market, money must be made. It’s a business now.
https://www.telabio.com/assets/download/OviTex%20Published%20Clinical%20Data.pdf
BRAVO Ventral Hernia Study Overview
• Study Design: prospective, single arm, multi-center study evaluating the clinical outcomes of ventral hernias treated with OviTex 1S Permanent
• Study Size and Duration: 100 patients with 2-year follow-up
• Primary Endpoints: incidence of early post-operative surgical site occurrences or wound related events occurring at the hernia repair site, including deep or superficial wound infection, seroma, hematoma, wound dehiscence, skin necrosis, and fistulas
• Secondary Endpoints: hernia recurrence, patient reported outcomes, incidence of late post-operative surgical site
occurrences or wound-related eventsFinal outcomes of the initial 20 subjects reaching 2-year follow up in the BRAVO Ventral Hernia Study
2020 American Hernia Society
• Data from the BRAVO Clinical Study were analyzed to compare OviTex 1S Permanent in MIVHR and Open VHR
o Twenty (20) of 92 subjects completed 2-year follow-up, 14 (70%) open and 6 (30%) minimally invasive (MIS), of
which 2 were laparoscopic and 4 robotic
• SSO rate for all subjects was 25% with 4 infections and 1 hematoma
• All SSOs had resolved at the time of first analysis at 30 days and did not require surgical intervention
• No subject in this group has experienced a recurrence (0 of 20; 0%) through two years-
This reply was modified 3 years, 1 month ago by Good intentions.
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This reply was modified 3 years, 1 month ago by
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If you are in the Northwest you should call Dr. Peter Billing at Transform Weight Loss. He is an expert in laparoscopy and knows the problems with mesh. He removed mine, with none of the damage that some people have had from mesh removal. He would probably know if your hernia can be repaired without mesh, and if he did use mesh I think that he would use only the amount necessary. I think that many of today’s problems with mesh are because the amount of mesh used for a procedure has trended upward dramatically over the last 5 – 10 years.
Also, TelaBio’s product is still new. There is not much data on how much resorption actually occurs in a human being, and what the rate of problems is with the product. It is another mesh-like device that has been approved through the 510(k) process, and is treated just like the synthetic meshes, with no registry and no long-term tracking of patient welfare. Once these products get to market, they just blend in with the crowd of medical devices. Sorry, it’s just the way the industry works.
Here is the link to Dr. Billing’s practice. He is very capable and conscientious. Good luck.
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Unfortunately mine is incisional/ventral not a ingunial so it does require mesh. My only option now is to find some kind of mesh that is autoimmune friendly or biodegradable. Of course there is no way to know how my body will react until it’s in there. No mesh means a high possibility of reoccurance and causing more damage because of the location. I am terrified.
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I would reach out to surgeons in your area by calling. I was surprised to find dozens of surgeons in my area who do non-mesh repairs (both hernia specialists and general non-specific practice).
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Inguinal is a groin hernia. What you describe sounds like an incisional hernia.
I have a friend doing well with DNRS, that could help pre-operatively.
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I have Urticaria and also when under severe stress have severe nerve pain in the groin area (have had it since a child, it lasts few minutes but it is really debilitating; luckily removing the stress or e.g. stopping drinking coffee for a while resolves it, and it only happens once every few months).
So I am also extra careful on what goes into my body; or at the very least what goes it better stay there for as a short a time as possible…here in Switzerland where I live I mentioned my condition at a hospital and they wanted to run some tests to assess if I am “allergic” to meshes, which I did not do because of covid and the non conclusive results anyway. However I got the feeling that in an emergency situation they might opt for whatever procedure would resolve the hernia while not exacerbating the urticaria problem…so I am just wondering whether in your area a hospital with other doctors and expertise might push for a non mesh option because of your other conditions….ps: I am still watching my hernia as at the moment symptoms are minimal
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Call Dr. Brown. He can help. Good luck.
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Dr. Szotek has commented on here, he uses a product called Ovitex, stated to be 95% absorbable. I am not a doctor and do not know if this applies to your situation, but I think the claim is that after absorption the amount of remaining material is close to the amount left by traditional stitching.
I believe he does tele-health consultations. https://www.indianahernia.com/
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I left a message for Dr. Brown to call me. I’m praying he can fix an incision hernia without mesh since it looks like he does sports/groin which is not the one I have.
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Sorry I meant I have an incisional hernia from a prior laporscopic appendectomy. It’s above my belly button
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