Diagnoses

Can Hernias Repair Themselves?

Published December 26, 2018 By William Brown, MD

Let’s say you have the symptoms of a hernia and you’re concerned you might have one. These symptoms may include pain when you bend, cough, or lift something; a heavy feeling or pressure inside your abdomen; constipation; swelling underneath your skin around your groin, or a burning sensation where the swelling is.

What do you do?

The first thing you’ll need to do is to see a good hernia specialist to make sure that a hernia is actually the problem. If you are in fact diagnosed, you’ll need to decide whether to have a hernia operation or leave it alone.

Many people who are diagnosed with a hernia decide to ignore it—either because they don’t want to have an operation or they don’t have very much pain. In some cases, in fact, there’s no pain at all, and patients convince themselves to just wait and see if their symptoms become…

How Do I Choose a Sports Hernia Surgeon?

Published December 15, 2018 By William Brown, MD

Find a Doctor You Can Trust

No surgery should be taken lightly. It means trusting another person to go inside of your body with tools and make you better. Especially when it comes to something as painful as a sports hernia, you’ll want to make sure you’ve found the right medical professional to take care of you. Not only for the surgery, but for the follow-up process as well.

If you’ve been diagnosed with a sports hernia, it’s both good and bad news. The bad news? You have a sports hernia. The good news? You weren’t misdiagnosed, which is unfortunately very common with sports hernias. And when you’re misdiagnosed, you don’t receive the proper treatment, which can cause even more problems.

If you’ve been correctly diagnosed with a sports hernia, it’s time to find the right professional to help get you on the road to recovery. But finding a good…

Options For Your Hernia Repair

Published February 25, 2018 By William Brown, MD

Do All Hernias Have to be Repaired?

Once you’re diagnosed with a hernia – be it an indirect inguinal hernia, direct inguinal hernia and/or femoral hernia – the next question is does it have to be repaired, and if so, how soon? If you’ve been living with a hernia for long, then you may have increased your pain tolerance to a point where the hernia doesn’t appear to have a negative effect on your life. Some hernias simply don’t cause much discomfort. And, there’s the recovery period post-hernia repair to consider and plan for, which can make you want to put off repairing your hernia.

Relieving significant pain that stops you from living daily life as usual is the top reason to repair a hernia, but there are several other reasons that cause people with hernias to have them repaired sooner versus later. If you’re on your feet for long…

Shouldice Hernia Repair Technique

Published February 22, 2018 By William Brown, MD

Four Things You Should Know About the Shouldice Hernia Repair Technique

Shouldice Repair for Hernias

If you are researching hernia repair techniques, chances are that you’ve come across the Shouldice technique. No wonder since it’s considered an excellent hernia repair method due to it putting minimal tension on the repair, which leads to less post-operative pain and easier recovery, it has a low hernia recurrence rate, it has a low infection rate, and its results are equal to or better than using mesh.

That just scratches the surface of this popular hernia repair method. Here are four more things you should know about the Shouldice hernia repair technique.

1. How it’s performed.
The Shouldice hernia repair involves using a running permanent suture to first plicate and strengthen the inguinal floor. Then a second running suture is used to plicate the oblique muscles, creating a four-layer hernia repair.

2. Who invented it.
Dr. Edward Shouldice,…

Inguinal Hernia Repair

Published February 14, 2018 By William Brown, MD

To Use or Not to Use Mesh, That is the Question

When a surgeon chooses to use mesh, the mesh (or plastic) is used as a patch to cover the hole in the muscles. The mesh can be can be inserted with a laparoscope, so that it patches the hole on the inner surface or the deep side. Or the mesh can be placed through an incision in your skin, in which case the mesh or patch is on the outside of the hole in the muscles.

Either way, mesh repair leaves a foreign object in your body. A layer of scar tissue developments around the mesh. The scar tissue causes the mesh to become stiff and hard, thus unable to move with your body when you bend and twist. It’s the perfect storm for causing pain. Severe pain can also result when a nerve or the spermatic cord becomes…

Hernia Treatments Specialists Recommend

Published February 13, 2018 By William Brown, MD

Your Type of Hernia Dictates the Treatment a Hernia Specialist Recommends

There are three types of hernias: indirect inguinal hernias, direct inguinal hernias and femoral hernias. Not all hernias are alike and neither are the procedures to repair them. Only after your doctor has diagnosed your type of hernia can he or she recommend the best treatment – ideally, one that does not include mesh repair. Learn more about why Dr. William Brown performs non-mesh hernia repair.

If you are diagnosed with an indirect hernia, also known as a congenital hernia, that means that your muscles in that region are not damaged. Congenital hernias are the result of the abdominal wall not closing after the testicle passes through to the scrotum before you were born. This hole can enlarge as you get older and create a bulge under the skin, which is the intestines poking through. Luckily, full reconstruction of…