Hernias are a common ailment among millions of people, so it seems like there would be a safe, fairly easy procedure to help ease this painful condition. Unfortunately, countless patients have had to undergo hernia mesh repair surgery for recurrent hernias or to fix hernia mesh complications. Why are so many people needing repeat surgeries?
The FDA reports that the most common adverse events for all surgical repair of hernias—with or without—mesh include:
These are all instances where patients required medical care and in many cases underwent follow-up surgeries.
Experts are conflicted on whether it is better to repair the hernia using sutures or surgical tacks versus applying hernia mesh to the torn tissue. In a study published by the Journal of the American Medical Association, they monitored 3,242 patients who had elective incisional hernia repair surgery. (Incisional hernias are common and occur when intestines push through abdominal tissue that has been weakened from a previous surgery or injury.) 2,876 of the patients had mesh implants while 366 did not. After 62 months, the researchers found that those with mesh had only about an 11% hernia recurrence while those without mesh had a 17.1% hernia recurrence. While mesh may seem like the better option, it did create greater health risks. 4.65% of those who had mesh had complications including “bowel obstruction, bowel perforation, bleeding, late abscess” while only 0.8% without mesh suffered complications.
There are basically two ways that surgeons enter the body to fix hernias: Laparoscopic Hernia Repair and Open Hernia Repair (they both can be performed in mesh and non-mesh surgeries).
It is estimated that 60 out of 1,000 patients who have laparoscopic surgery performed will have ongoing pain, while 80 out of 1000 open hernia repairs will result in ongoing pain. Nerve pain occurs in about 74 out of 1000 laparoscopic hernia repairs and a few more have been reported in open surgical repairs. Infection occurs in about 1-2 patients per 1,000 for both types of repairs. Laparoscopic repair is usually performed for follow-up surgeries if the hernia returns.
Hernia surgery has many complications associated with it. Be sure to have a thorough discussion with your doctor to determine which procedure is right for you and to be aware of any symptoms or problems that could arise.
