Open, laproscopic or robotic repair for inguinal hernia?

john14_18

john14_18

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I have an inguinal hernia and have to have surgery. My surgeon is supposedly on the best around, but he will only do an open incision surgery. Says the other two are prone to fail. I am not real crazy about the open procedure from the war stories I have heard but was wondering if anyone had done laproscopic or robotic repair surgery or open incision with only local anesthesia and the outcome. I looked back on the forum for previous posts but they were all several years ago.
Thanks in advance and have a Blessed Day!
 
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My wife had open hernia surgery last summer in Japan. Initially the docs thought it inguinal, but it turned out to be inguinal and a nearby femoral hernia. Two hernias. Incision to include both was maybe an inch or so. Maybe a bit more. Surgeon put in mesh patches to cover both.

They gave her an epidural for the operation.

Operation was in the morning, and she was in the hospital for about six or seven hours recovering. She said other hernia patients seemed to recover from the epidural more quickly. A year later, the scar is nearly invisible.

My wife's surgery experience was a good one. It was pretty painful for several days after, but the pain quickly became less as the days passed. We were able to fly back to the US about two weeks later.

Good luck!
 
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My surgeon would do either, but I opted for the open trench method, due to the robot procedure would be scheduled out a month, since it was a shared machine. I was in a lot of pain, and didn't want to wait. The results have been good, and I don't care about any scar, since my days of strutting around on the beach in my Speedos are way in my rear view mirror! Actually, there is not much of a scar.
I go in for a total knee replacement tomorrow, and I hope the outcome is as good.

73,
Rick
 
I had laproscopic bi-lateral inguinal hernia repair with mesh done in May of 2019 under general anesthesia. The right side repair was a fairly large one. I have had 2 previous spinal fusion surgeries, a laproscopic gall bladder removal and at least 6 open surgeries on my feet previously and the hernia repairs were the most painful by a large measure. Note: due to addiction running in the family, I avoid taking the prescribed pain meds unless the pain is truly unbearable. Honestly, it took several months after the hernia repairs before I quit feeling an internal pulling discomfort whenever I got up out of a chair or sat up in bed, but I don't know how unusual that is for other patients.
 
Mine was done laproscopically in 2013. The first week or so getting out of the chair was "interesting" at times. I found a metal came helped a lot. I've never been able to do serious stomach exercises since, but that doesn't irk me too much.
 
I had my first hernia repaired laparoscopically and the other side was repaired with the open method. Laparoscopic is always general anesthesia and open can be general, spinal, or sedation. I opted for sedation with the open procedure. I found recovery time and post-op pain was similar in both cases and prescription painkillers were not required in both cases.
 
My belly button turned into an Audi after lifting a motor into place. I finally had it repaired and had the most beautiful doctor I ever saw. She said I wouldn't like her very much when I came to. She was right! But the young nurse shoved a couple percosets in my mouth when I was more awake. I liked her. With the chemicals and a velcro wrap thing around me I felt better within a week or so. That was the only "Audi" I ever owned, but I had the SS Impala!
I wish you good luck and a speedy recovery. I have no clue what kind of surgery she did. If you know, you know.
 
I just had my inguinal hernia repaired robotically in March. Operation took an hour. I had no pain after only a sore throat from the tube. Three little marks on my stomach and that was it.
 
I've had both. After the hernia repair with the robot, they had to go back in with the open method to clear some stuff up. OTOH, the prostate surgery was with the robot and things went OK there although they spent quite a bit of time dealing with scar tissue from my other repair jobs. NONE of my repairs were out patient.

No difference in recovery times or the joys of post op movement until healing is complete. Do get your self a good cane of the proper length to help you get in and out of chairs. Top of cane should be about an inch above your wrist. In 8-10 weeks (maybe less for your, check with Doc) you can gently start to rebuild your core muscles. The cute rehab specialist I had post prostate helped me build abs of titanium.
 
I had inguinal hernia surgery about 15 years ago. My surgeon recommended an open repair as he said it would be stronger. I vaguely recall him saying that the he didn't really trust the laparoscopic repairs. I was fully expecting a laparoscopic recommendation so this came as a surprise to me but I had 2,000 hours of sick leave so missing a couple weeks was no big deal and I was basically onboard with enduring a little more short-term pain to have a stronger/more reliable repair.

My recovery did take 2 weeks but I had no complications and have no complaints after 15 years.

I retrospect, I assume he might have made more money from an open procedure compared to a laparoscopic repair but I really have no idea and I accepted his recommendation at the time.
 
I had an inguinal hernia repaired almost 20 years ago by conventional "open" surgical methods. Mesh implant and all went according to plan.

I always believe that if you have selected a capable surgeon you trust one should let him/her use the procedure they are most comfortable with or feel is best suited to your needs and their skills.

This surgery/surgeon management policy worked stunningly well when I was making decisions about my mitral valve repair surgery 13 years ago. Good luck and Godspeed!

Bryan
 
Had the inguinal hernia repair back in 1994 done by the conventional method, with a plastic mesh put in. I think it was around 1 & 1/2 - 2 hours, as an outpatient. Since it was outpatient, I thought I would just get out the bed as usual the next morning. I quickly found out I was wrong - not with a diagonal cut across the abdomen. I had 2 -3 days of pain and very limited mobility, and then had some lifing restrictions for a while, but after the initial problems, recovered quickly. I did take the precribed pain pills, but after a day or so, tapered them off pretty quickly, taking less than the prescribed dose.

Tomorrow I plan to have the TLIF procedure ("minimally invasive" surgery) to fuse my L4 & L5 discs, and it also should be as an outpatient, and I have been wondering how the recovery will be, as compared to inguinial hernia surgery twenty-six years ago.
 
Had my hernia open repaired with mesh reinforcement. Was back to work a week later. Took the pain pills for the first few days but was not a lot of pain overall. Back to normal in about a month. This was 10-15 years ago.
 
riverrat38 said:
My surgeon would do either, but I opted for the open trench method, due to the robot procedure would be scheduled out a month, since it was a shared machine. I was in a lot of pain, and didn't want to wait. The results have been good, and I don't care about any scar, since my days of strutting around on the beach in my Speedos are way in my rear view mirror! Actually, there is not much of a scar.
I go in for a total knee replacement tomorrow, and I hope the outcome is as good.

73,
Rick
Click to expand...

Had both done 3 years ago. Same week. Not the brightest idea. But the knees are probably 95% GTG now.
 
Had the open version on April 4th. Had to take more time off than I otherwise would as I normally do peritoneal dialysis, which was contraindicated for a couple weeks and I had to do hemo. That was the worst part as I am not good with needles and those are pretty good sized.

I see my kidney doctor every month and the nurses twice a month. They take darned good care of me, and when the doc recommended a specific surgeon, I took his judgment as sound. Had a chat with the surgeon about options, and for me with my situation, open was his choice. There can be a lot of variables, so you need to have a decent working relationship and trust, then discuss the paths to be considered.

Surgery was not bad, and not near as bad the catheter install and belly button repair (fix prior work). That really sucked and I got behind on the pain curve as I do not normally need a lot pain meds. Oh MY.
 
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