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Went to see the very pleasant and personable Dr. Kelvin Brown yesterday at Coosa Medical Associates, in Rome, GA, because he's the only surgeon I've been able to find who does tension-free hernia repairs that is on my insurance. And I go under the knife at Redmond Medical Center next Tuesday. I'm actually looking forward to it.
A tension-free repair differs from the usual hernia repairs done nowadays, that employ mesh. There's the method where the mesh is placed over the defect and stitched down: had it once, failed in 6 months. There's the one where a plug of mesh is placed IN the defect and stitched to both edges of the defect: had it once, failed before 6 weeks was up. There's the kind where they just pull the edges of the defect together and stitch that together: had that with the RNY surgery, and it's failed all along the incision line, literally from the tip of my sternum (xiphoid process to the medico-geeks out there) to about 3 inches above the pubic bone.
And then there's tension-free. It's been done in the UK for donkey's years, and finally is getting accepted here in the US. They also do it laparoscopically, which makes for quick recovery. The tension-free method takes a big piece of mesh and puts it [b]inside[/b] the abdominal cavity, between the innards and the abdominal wall. It's anchored to the fascia lining the abdominal cavity, and is drawn tightly across the defect. The theory is that the pressure from inside the abdomen holds the mesh in place, which certainly makes sense to me.
The best part is that, while the other methods have a recurrence rate of 10 to 50%, increasing as you have recurrences repaired, the tension-free method has a recurrence rate of around 1 to 5%. I would SO LOVE not to have my stomach poking out after I eat, or have this Alien-like protrusion announcing itself whenever I cough or do anything that causes my abdomen to tense. Not to mention the constant discomfort and achiness of my abdomen, which only eases when I lay flat on my back with no pressure on my belly. Now how much exercise can a body do lying flat on their back?
So y'all wish me luck, and send me some good thoughts next Tuesday.
Lorri
A tension-free repair differs from the usual hernia repairs done nowadays, that employ mesh. There's the method where the mesh is placed over the defect and stitched down: had it once, failed in 6 months. There's the one where a plug of mesh is placed IN the defect and stitched to both edges of the defect: had it once, failed before 6 weeks was up. There's the kind where they just pull the edges of the defect together and stitch that together: had that with the RNY surgery, and it's failed all along the incision line, literally from the tip of my sternum (xiphoid process to the medico-geeks out there) to about 3 inches above the pubic bone.
And then there's tension-free. It's been done in the UK for donkey's years, and finally is getting accepted here in the US. They also do it laparoscopically, which makes for quick recovery. The tension-free method takes a big piece of mesh and puts it [b]inside[/b] the abdominal cavity, between the innards and the abdominal wall. It's anchored to the fascia lining the abdominal cavity, and is drawn tightly across the defect. The theory is that the pressure from inside the abdomen holds the mesh in place, which certainly makes sense to me.
The best part is that, while the other methods have a recurrence rate of 10 to 50%, increasing as you have recurrences repaired, the tension-free method has a recurrence rate of around 1 to 5%. I would SO LOVE not to have my stomach poking out after I eat, or have this Alien-like protrusion announcing itself whenever I cough or do anything that causes my abdomen to tense. Not to mention the constant discomfort and achiness of my abdomen, which only eases when I lay flat on my back with no pressure on my belly. Now how much exercise can a body do lying flat on their back?
So y'all wish me luck, and send me some good thoughts next Tuesday.
Lorri
