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Urinary Symptoms After Inguinal Mesh
My daughter had an inguinal hernia mesh repair on the right side in December 2017. Immediately following the surgery she was in absolutely horrific pain. I actually considered turning around the car as we left the outpatient surgery center. She is pretty tough when it comes to pain and did not have near this amount of pain following knee surgeries and abdominal laparoscopies for endometriosis. Her recovery was exceptionally difficult.
Following her surgery she started developing significant urinary issues. Extreme urgency and frequency – to the point of urinating up to 50 times a day. We followed up with her hernia surgeon who said the mesh could not cause this issue so she saw a urologist. She has undergone botox in the detrusor muscle of her bladder, hydrodistensions, and PTNS to stop the urinary dysfunction that showed on her urodynamics study. Basically, the detrusor (bladder) muscle is always telling her to go and when she goes she has difficulty releasing her urine; the sphincter does not want to relax. She has seen various specialists (even gyn) and they say it is a neurogenic bladder.
Is there any possibility that because these symptoms developed postoperatively from her mesh repair that they could be the result of her mesh repair?
Her quality of life is very bad due to these issues and she is considering removing her bladder. She also feels that she has a reoccurrence of the original hernia and another hernia on the left side from straining to urinate.
Any insight or experience that could let us know if she should pursue mesh removal or evaluation for mesh removal would be appreciated.
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3 Replies
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Additionally, my daughter had a collagen issue called Ehlers Danlos Syndrome.
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Dear JLee.
The mesh is probably stuck to the bladder. A cystogram can help identify if the bladder is distorted by the mesh. A cystoscopy can evaluate the bladder mucosa. She should also be checked for recurrent endometriosis.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28903762
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29103256
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19657592Regards.
Bill Brown MD -
Hello JLEE. I wrote a long post but it got disappeared.
I think that it is very possible and probable that your daughter’s problems are caused by the mesh. Typically the mesh is placed close to the bladder, due to the size of the piece that is implanted. Today’s implantation surgeons implant very large pieces. Read through the many posts on this site to get a better understanding.
Make sure that you find a surgeon who removes mesh as you try to solve her problem. The mesh industry is a very closed and protective group and you will waste a lot of time talking to surgeons that implant mesh, but do not remove it. They are educated and trained that mesh does not cause problems.
Good luck. Get her medical records so that you know exactly what you are dealing with. There are many many different types of mesh.
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