-
Shouldice Clinic Experiences?
I had originally thought I would travel to Shouldice for hernia repair and even got approved by them and given a surgery date–then my insurance company said they wouldn’t reimburse if I went out of country and I started reading more about hernia repair trying to find a domestic surgeon. I loved the idea of Shouldice because if I had to travel I could go be myself and stay in the hospital rather than having to travel and take someone else and stay in hotel. But I also grew a little concerned about the muscle that has to be cut and the steel wire used in stitching. I cancelled my surgery date. Still I’ve returned to considering them and then on a local list serve where I put out an SOS about any local doctors who do no mesh repair, one person wrote and said like me he hadn’t wanted mesh, went to Shouldice, and his repair failed 8 months later. Now he has mesh. My GP has another patient who went to Shouldice and was completely happy with her repair.
-
2 Replies
-
I’d also be interested if you know if it was mentioned of if you can find out if the Shouldice Hospital admitted that their repair failed and did they repair the recurrence with mesh (in a small number of cases they use mesh) or was it a different surgeon that diagnosed the failure and repaired with mesh.
Good intentions is right that you should find out as much as possible to help you make a educated decision :
Some additional questions: was the hernia a direct hernia or a indirect hernia, large or small, was his mesh implanted openly or laparoscopically and how far out is this person from his or her repair with mesh (ie months, years etc) -
quote Dill:I had originally thought I would travel to Shouldice for hernia repair…
Still I’ve returned to considering them and then on a local list serve where I put out an SOS about any local doctors who do no mesh repair, one person wrote and said like me he hadn’t wanted mesh, went to Shouldice, and his repair failed 8 months later. Now he has mesh. My GP has another patient who went to Shouldice and was completely happy with her repair.
One very big problem with making a good choice is the lack of detail available about what’s currently available, especially in terms of time. Without the details it’s just “mesh”, and “fail”.
Do you know what type of hernia the person who had the Shouldice failure had, and how it failed? And how does he like the “mesh” repair now, what type of “mesh” repair was it, and how long has he had it? Does he know why it failed? Did he choose a “mesh” repair because of the failure or because it was his only choice? Even though he had a failure, he has a rare comparison experience between two different types of repair. Does he recommend a “mesh” repair, for you and/or for everyone?
From your other post it is apparent that you are female. Did your friend have a male-type failure or was it a type of failure that you might have also?
Those are the questions I would try to answer. The hernia repair field is very complicated in reality yet extremely over-simplified in discussion, even by the expert surgeons in the field. You can’t decide just on the word “mesh” or “no mesh”.
Good luck.
Log in to reply.