[Alephy]

I am no doctor but I seem to remember someone saying that nerves can also be educated and silenced. Perhaps the nerve blocks albeit temporary do stop the flow enough for the brain to rewire and slump down the importance of the signal….or the nerve block itself reduces inflammation which on turn reduces the nerve flaring…

[Alephy]

I never used them for this but I bet noise cancelling headphones could help! I can easily say I cannot live without them any more when it comes to relaxing working etc.

[Alephy]

Thanks for your answer! Are there situations when this is warranted or it just cannot be avoided somehow?

[Alephy]

I have heard from many doctors (also here) that one can exercise (in fact should exercise) with an hernia…I do martial arts and while I have not started rolling yet I still train by myself. The moment I physically cannot any more (e.g. because of pain) surgery would be most definitely on the table, but only then….

[Alephy]

I am wondering, do surgeons also cut nerves when placing a mesh with open surgery? Or is this only a pure tissue problem?

[Alephy]

I once watched a video from an Italian hernia expert who referred to the mesh body sensation as “the feeling of a cigarette packet in your pocket when you are seated”; he is an advocate of bio re-absorbable meshes (in fact I think he only uses those) which he claims do not have this problem.

Does the mesh bother/hinder you in any physical activities (sex included)? (It also depends on your age I guess)
Personally I bow to those who claim to have always been totally healthy/pain free (same with those few who never saw a dentist) i.e. you can still lead your life if the discomfort is minimal…

[Alephy]

Indeed!what I found interesting is that the proflor is self fixatimg and apparently promotes the growth of healthy tissue instead of scar one, as with all the other meshes (not sure about the biological ones)…

[Alephy]

The proflor mesh is apparently sold by insith ria in India and also Italy somehow. ..

[Alephy]

As with any permanent implant unless they can provide sound long term numbers and address the significance of chronic pain or disfunction it is difficult to say anything…I would assume naively that those implants that get reabsorbed at least are less likely to cause problems years down the road….also people claim they cause less short term pain

[Alephy]

It’s interesting that no doctor commented on this…🤔

[Alephy]

Thank you to Dr Szotek for the info!

[Alephy]

This is what I have wondered about i.e. how common is it that people with a mesh repair will experience problems years after the original surgery? And are these people counted in the original ~15/20% of people having problems? (I would be surprised as patients are not followed up, certainly not for a span of many years)…

I would think 11 years is still a relatively short time considering that removing the mesh is a major surgery:(

I also find ironic that in our digital world we know everything of everybody but we do not own or know about our medical records:(

[Alephy]

Btw are nerves also cut during an open mesh repair?🤔

[Alephy]

I wonder why Dr. Muschaweck would do that….I know the position of the nerves can change a lot depending on the individual🤔 also if I understand correctly it also depends on how much/where the nerves are cut; or is it just one nerve? If Shouldice involves major nerves cutting then for me it is off the table period!

[Alephy]

Do some doctors still cut nerves as a prophylactic measure? I find this thought very disturbing….

[Alephy]

Yes I also think physio is the first option to go for…btw in my opinion some sort of physio or exercising should be always done, even when pain is gone. It should go together with eating and drinking…

[Alephy]

I personally see it more like this: when someone is straining the abdominal muscles in any way pressure is exerted on both sides of the body. Considering the overall small amount of tissue involved in any hernia I cannot see why this pressure would be any different after the hernia. In fact even on the hernia side there is still the same pressure with a difference in the way part of the tissues then respond as otherwise no hernia would ever get any bigger…

[Alephy]

Thanks for your answers!
I am wondering why people had to stay a week in hospital back then when mesh was not around, given these days even with a tissue only repair one is sent home the same day or the day after….

Absorbable meshes: no long term study would mean it is not known then, as opposed to being a studied and verified as a fact? Again I hear contradictory claims in both directions…

Leaving aside the recurrence rate war, are mesh patients more at risk of developing complications after years from the surgery, and if so does this still enter into the 15% of complications?

Thanks a lot again for your help!

[Alephy]

A doctor mentioned this to me but why should the pressure increase on the other side? I think they like to simplify things as if water was inside the belly…plus this doctor wanted to put mesh in and was making a good story for it..

[Alephy]

Well the downsides of mesh are not a new topic for sure. There have been attempts to make a mesh that would prompt the growth of healthy tissue with eg some 3d meshes but somehow they have not met a positive response from the market somehow, and they would need to be studied further probably. As for the scar tissue and mesh I think athletes who got an implant are immediately sent to physio to reduce any scar tissue problems that might arise so I think there is also a timing component there. In any case physio is beneficial even if the scar tissue remained there..