Good intentions

You might consider the strength of the new tissue/collagen that is holding the layers together. It takes months or years for the collagen to fully convert to the strongest form. Permanent sutures could be considered as a backup or insurance against accidental extreme exertions or increases in abdominal pressure.

I created a new Topic about the Special Issue itself. As new papers become available I will post the links there. I included a link back to this Topic to keep the chain of information intact.

Hernia Journal Special Issue on Chronic Pain

Here is a link to Hernia’s web site. They list the latest articles on the page. They also show the latest Journal that has been released. January 2023 has not been released yet.

https://www.springer.com/journal/10029

Here is a link to a Topic about the Hernia Editor’s original introduction to the…[Read more]

The purpose of the study seemed reasonable but it’s not clear why they went to social media to gather results. As Dr. Towfigh implied, people who don’t have problems rarely talk about their surgeries on social media. Their “aim” really should have said “perspectives of patients around their hernia repair problems”.

“The aim of this study was to…[Read more]

It looks like the issue of Hernia dedicated to chronic pain is about to be released or has been already. Dr. Campanelli has written an introductory Editorial. It kind of fits with the times, he comes very close to using the popular word “woke”. He implies that the chronic pain problem is amplified by patients being too aware and too demanding.…[Read more]

They don’t say. I think that most surgeons are very short-sighted about the results of their work. It’s the nature of the profession. So much can happen to a patient after they leave and there will be so many over the course of a career, that unless they are truly interested in the long-term results of a procedure they just don’t follow up.…[Read more]

Dr. Towfigh, the paper does not say that lap is better than open. It actually ends suggesting that open is the best. But, it’s about economics.

I was actually thinking of this recently. Where are the lawsuits for Lichtenstein repairs? There don’t seem to be any.

One person who might have an objective opinion about open mesh versus…[Read more]

That is an interesting comment. It kind of implies that when the mesh is removed the tissues and hernia are all returned to the pre-implantation state.

Unfortunately that is far far from the reality. There is real tissue damage done during the implantation process and as soon as the foreign body response to the mesh begins. Despite how clean…[Read more]

DR. Towfigh makes a very firm comment that “If you have mesh removal after a hernia repair with mesh, you will have a hernia recurrence. Scar tissue alone is not strong enough to keep the hernia from recurring (except in some cases related to mesh removal due to infection).”

But, as far as I’ve seen, there is no evidence supporting that…[Read more]

Don’t let one person ruin your experience on an internet forum. Whether it’s me, or Herniated, or Pinto. The internet is a strange place where it is very difficult at times to “not look”.

On other forums that I am member of there is an “Ignore” function that can be chosen that will hide all posts from certain members so that you don’t have to…[Read more]

It looks like there was a settlement in the Ethicon Physiomesh case. Ethicon and Johnson & Johnson are essentially the same company.

The writer of this article brings up the fact that the cases will probably keep coming. The mesh makers have created a lifetime of employment for the law firms. They knew better but they did it anyway. Where…[Read more]

I think that the problem is a matter of degree. The atrocities that happened before and during WW2 that were associated with the development of the Nuremberg Code have very little to do with what Dr. Kang is doing.

There is a saying that you might have heard that mentioning Hitler in a conversation is a sure way to end the…[Read more]

This is interesting. When J&J created Ethicon it looked like a similar attempt to separate itself from hernia mesh liability. This decision will probably influence mesh litigation cases.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/j-j-t-bankruptcy-end-165835182.html

“(Bloomberg) — Johnson & Johnson can’t use bankruptcy to resolve more than 40,000 cancer l…[Read more]

You chose a sensational term to get attention and got what you wanted. Now you’re off on a tangent. The effort now is not really about Dr. Kang at all. You’re defending yourself instead.

The best thing to do if you really want to discuss hernia related topics is to acknowledge that and move on. Sometimes even intelligent well-meaning people…[Read more]

Here’s a new summary of the mesh litigation situation. It shows how they’ve simplified things down to where the issues can be presented to the general public. Simple explanations, some probably not quite right.

It’s hard to predict how this will all play out. Comparing the mesh MDL’s to a suit like the 3M earplug suit, you can imagine that 3M…[Read more]

It’s an interesting topic. But I think that Herniated is really stretching things to imply that Dr. Kang’s work is similar in any way to the Nazi experiments of WW2.

It would be more proper to say that it might be unethical to hold back his knowledge if he has evidence that it is better than prevailing practice. If he has a better way he should…[Read more]

Was the “other issue” in the groin known before surgery or discovered during surgery? I don’t want to dig in to the details of your ordeal but it kind of confuses the overall assessment of the Shouldice experience. Did they make the situation better or worse? Could there have been better planning if they had known?

I don’t know how much you’ve…[Read more]