FAQs for HERNIA Part 2 of 2

Some More
Frequently Asked Questions about Hernia

PART 2 of 2


It doesn't hurt me at all! Do I really have to get my hernia repaired?
	Hernias (in adult life) do not repair themselves. In fact, they normally only get worse! Every day you leave your hernia, it gets slightly bigger, you are a day older, and the tissue just a little less 'co-operative'. All you are doing is 'putting off the evil day' and could be suffering symptoms while you do so! Once diagnosed, abdominal wall hernias should be repaired as soon as possible, by the best techniques available.
Is it dangerous to ignore the hernia?	Most hernias, if not treated, do nothing more than get bigger. However, hernias can get very painful, often without warning and - at their worst - can strangulate, which can demand an ambulance and immediate emergency surgery or the consequences could be extreme. Ignoring a hernia, once diagnosed, is like playing "Russian Roulette!". There is more on this in later questions, below.

Is there any way I can PREVENT myself from getting a hernia?
	No. Even if you spend your life in bed, never lifting, bending, stretching or exerting yourself, you might give a big SNEEZE (or a cough) one day and "Wham!", you have a hernia. It is 'just one of those things' that afflicts all of humanity. About one in ten of us will have one, which is an awfully large number.
I had a hernia repaired and it has come BACK! (Recurred) Can't it be fixed 'once-and-for-all'?
	Traditionally, the way most are repaired, many hernias fail (recur) and - sadly - they tend to fare even worse when they get repaired again! The failure rate is thought to *double* with each subsequent attempt. Happily, we now have a proven technique which is so reliable that even hernias which have recurred and recurred *several times over* are as reliable as our primary ('first-time') repairs. The risks of recurrence are an 'insignificant' fraction of one percent! See the page on this web site specifically on recurrent hernia and read it to the end!
What is a STRANGULATED hernia?	If the 'window' in the abdominal wall should decide to close and clamp shut WHILST a fold of (say) bowel is poking through it, this is a STRANGULATED hernia. It cuts off the blood supply to the bowel - which rapidly turns very unpleasant, is usually extremely painful and is a surgical emergency. It can require treatment within minutes, sometimes, requiring an ambulance trip to the emergency room at the nearest hospital. If you have pain with a hernia, especially a small one, you should not wait to see what happens. Get it repaired as soon as possible.
Are hernias hereditary?
	Only insofar as we ALL inherit an anatomical weakness as part of the design of the human body. Your parents are not responsible, except that they are human.
Are hernias normally repaired by hernia specialists?
	Most hernias around the world are repaired by 'general' surgeons as just one of the list of procedures they perform. Hernia is not a subject that has attracted enough interest, generally, to make it a specialised area. The extraordinarily slow development of modern techniques is a result. We feel that hernia needs specialisation.
My Insurance, HMO or National Health service may not cover me to have this specialised treatment. What should I do?
	If you are in this position, you must still remember that it is YOUR body and your health at stake. If you feel that you can get something you vastly prefer to what they make available to you, then go for it yourself. Not everything that is excellent is expensive and you may be very pleasantly surprised at how affordable it is.
My local hospital says they do the 'same' operation. If that is the case, why do I need to come to you?
m	Not many of them really do, but if your local hospital really does do the same operation, they will be achieving the same results, so you can use either of us. (See the next question)
I'm not a hernia surgeon. How can I know if what they do really IS the same as you describe?
m	The easiest way to compare is to start with the expected effect on you. For example, is it done under just local anaesthesia? will you need a bed at all afterwards? will you be able to return to work and normal activities in the same amount of time Are the risks of recurrence anything like the same?
Is there any advantage to being treated at a specialist hernia centre?
m	Hernia surgery is no different to any other walk of life in this regard. If other operations are done better by people who specialise in that work, then hernia is no different. Expert opinion now recognizes the importance of specialisation in hernia, not only by the surgeon, but the rest of the team and the unit where the work is done. This graph shows just how much our OWN results have been improved only because of our experience with so many cases each year. We started off with excellent results, but you can see how, by doing THOUSANDS of hernias, even they were dramatically improved upon...
How do I define a specialist hernia centre?
m	This is really a matter of 'degree'. If the centre works exclusively on hernia and has a permanent team of senior surgeons which performs a significant number of cases each day/week/month/year and publishes its results, then it is fair to describe that place as a specialist centre. *Merely adopting the name "hernia centre"* is not significant.** ( Click here for some examples of publications by The British Hernia Centre)

More FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions) will be added to this page
as part of the continuing development of this web site

If you wish to email us with your own question for personal reply, please do so.
You can email us from the main HERNIA web site .
You are also welcome to tell us (politely, please!) what you think of this page,
or anything else about our web site.