4th time’s the charm

We had a wonderfully pleasant 73 year old woman who came to us recently after 3 previous failed attempts at fixing her hernia. She had gallbladder surgery back 20 years ago and developed a hernia at one of her incisions. This was repaired 3 times and each time the surgery failed. We hope that the 4th time is the charm and I think we have good reason to be optimistic. As I discussed in prior posts, bringing the muscles together during a complex hernia repair is something that is absolutely critical. In her case, that hadn’t been done; instead it had been patched, and patched, and patched. For simple, small hernias, patching the hole is the right treatment. But for larger complex hernias, it just doesn’t work. The images below are our before and after photos. More images from this surgery can be seen on our ‘unique cases‘ webpage. As a matter of fact, there was a recent journal article showing that when the muscles are put back together, they actually can strengthen over time. This is the article here: Comparative Radiographic Analysis of Changes in the Abdominal Wall Musculature Morphology after Open Posterior Component Separation or Bridging Laparoscopic Ventral Hernia Repair [123-contact-form i1045613]