[dan]

I actually live right across shouldice hospital and despite this i will go and get treatment from Dr Kang.

The issue with shouldice is that they’ve committed to the “if it ain’t broken don’t fix it” attitude. Shouldice still refuses to use sonography as a tool for diagnosis. They still do the traditional physical examination method only. When you bring them your ultrasound result from your GP, they will ignore it.
Even post surgery, instead of using skin glue or a suture to close the wound, they staple it like it’s still the 1990s. Their technique just hasn’t evolved at all.
They also require you to stay like a week in their hotel which also looks like it’s from the past.

This is usually what happens when you lack competition in the space. Shouldice has always been the #1 go to for non-mesh repair. I do hope that as Kang method enters into competition that it will wake them up

[dan]

great read, looking forward to part 2
good luck on full recovery

[dan]

Hope you update us about your surgery
Good luck man

[dan]

Is that the standard practice these days? Cause i haven’t heard of that

[dan]

From what i know, Dr Kang uses pds suture which are slow absorbable (130-180 days to fully absorb)

I am a korean american looking to get dr kang’s surgery once the pandemic ends. I will probably update once i get one. However, there is a story written by a korean woman on her blog about her experience with the surgery. She became pregnant 1 year after surgery and gave birth through c-section. According to her, her hernia did not reoccur even after holding a baby inside her.
Do what you will with that info

[dan]

Forgot to mention, my occult hernia is a factor in why i am going to Kang instead. Shouldice doesn’t operate on small hernias. My occult hernia is causing pain and i need it addressed

[dan]

I hate this website sometimes. I wrote a very long reply but it disappeared so i am rewriting it again

I’ve made a post about my situation before but i am korean. I visit korea often and have family members there. Many of the expenses that the average person needs to spend on (like hotel fees) aren’t applicable to me because i have a place in Seoul. Although i don’t have insurance in korea, $3000 is not steep for me. Since i am going to korea anyways, it’s not far fetched that i would choose Kang over Shouldice.

I think that Doctors should use every tool they can to accurately diagnose their patients. There is not a single good argument that could be made for why Shouldice refuses to use ultrasound alongside their physical examination. My left hernia is an occult hernia and physical examination failed to diagnose it. It wasn’t until i got an ultrasound done that i knew it was a hernia. If you look through 1 star reviews of Shouldice clinic, many of them are complaints about the diagnosis process. Patients will bring their own ultrasound result and Shouldice will still continue to reject it. I would hope that if a surgeon is planning to do a surgery that they would do everything they can to diagnose their patients to the best of their abilities first. I don’t think that this is too much to ask. There really is no downside to the usage of ultrasound

Shouldice clinic making people stay several days after surgery is a way for them to squeeze every penny out of you btw. Shouldice is a private clinic afterall. In Canada, OHIP (healthcare) covers the cost of the surgery itself. However, you have to pay for the “hotel” stays in order to get a surgery at the clinic. There aren’t many modern hernia repair clinics and hospitals out there (whether it be mesh or non-mesh) that will force its patients to stay several days. It is completely unnecessary and just a waste of time. Additionally, for OHIP patients like me, the wait time for shouldice is actually rather quite long. Shouldice prioritizes patients who are paying out of their pockets. If i am going to have to wait like 6 months, i might as well just fly to korea since i am going there anyways.

Speaking of long stay at the clinic, the staples that Shouldice uses contributes to this late discharge. They remove the staples after 2-3 days. From the stories ive read of people’s experience in Shouldice, the staples seem to cause some level of discomfort. In my opinion, the aftercare of the surgery matters just as much as the surgery itself. Why is Shouldice opting for staples when a much more comfortable and better option is available for the patient? Even surgeons outside of Shouldice Clinic who have adopted Shouldice method to their repair don’t use staples anymore. It’s obviously not a deal breaker but these things do add up.

Of course the quality of the facility matters when you are going to have to spend several days there. I don’t know if i need to say more about this. I don’t want to stay in a old looking hotel for several days in discomfort.

I am not completely against Shouldice. If for whatever reason Kang doesn’t work, Shouldice is my second option. It’s just that given various different reasons, i am choosing Kang over Shouldice.

There is actually a small internet blog written by a Canadian hernia mesh surgeon who pretty much have similar complaints that i have towards Shouldice, you can check it out here:

https://canadianfemalesurgeon.wordpress.com/2015/05/19/the-problem-with-shouldice-or-the-most-dangerous-phrase-in-the-english-language-weve-always-done-it-this-way/

As for the dubious claim that i live across Shouldice, here is a picture of my driver’s license with sensitive information censored:
https://i.postimg.cc/qBjdVdBW/1.png

As you can see, i live in Thornhill ON Canada. If you input that in Google maps, it should highlight the general area where Shouldice is.

The reason why i am doing this is that your skepticism is justified. Anyone on the internet can make any claims. I could be a paid shill from Dr Kang for all anyone knows.

[dan]

Yeah the quarantine requirement is 14 days unless you apply for a quarantine exemption. If you want to go get dr kang’s surgery, it’s likely you would have to wait until the lockdown is over.

[dan]

I heard that smaller hernias are much more likely to get incarcerated. Except i haven’t seen a study confirming this. It seems to be like something that has become widely considered as truth simply due to it being repeated often. Not sure if you can confirm or not