It started out as a small pinch with certain movements, but these days your hernia is more of a presence in your life, and not a pleasant one. While there are many different types of hernias, they all have one thing in common — they don’t usually go away on their own.
In fact, quite the opposite. Many hernias get progressively worse until surgery becomes the clear answer, which explains why more than 600,000 ventral hernia repairs and more than 1 million inguinal hernia repairs are performed each year in the United States.
At Advanced Surgeons, our team of skilled general surgeons has certainly added to these numbers, as we routinely perform hernia repairs.
To get an idea about when hernia surgery makes good sense, read on.
In general, a hernia describes a condition in which internal structures bulge through a hole or weak spot. There are different types of hernias, including:
This is the most common type of hernia. It accounts for three-quarters of all hernias, most of them affecting men. With inguinal hernias, contents of your abdomen bulge through a weak spot in your lower abdominal wall and into the inguinal canals in your groin.
This type of hernia also involves the abdomen — the font wall, to be more specific. Examples of ventral hernias are incisional hernias and umbilical hernias.
This is a common type of hernia in which the top of your stomach bulges up through your diaphragm.
This list of hernias isn’t complete, but the other types are far less common. Besides, hernias often behave in the same way, no matter their location or type.
First, we want to touch again on the title of this blog with an emphatic answer — no, hernias do not go away on their own. Once a weakness or hole forms, it will remain there.
Not only do existing hernias not go away on their own, many are progressive, especially as you get older and tissues weaken even further, which can enlarge an existing hernia.
When an existing hernia grows, more tissue can push through, and you run the risk of tissue being trapped outside the hernia. When this happens, this tissue or organ can lose its blood supply and start to die off, potentially leading to serious complications depending on which tissues.
Our point here is that if your hernia is making your life uncomfortable or it's getting bigger and you're concerned about complications, contact us about repairing the hernia surgically.
During hernia repair surgeries, we use minimally invasive technologies to place a mesh over the hernia to strengthen it and make sure that your organs and tissues can’t bulge through anymore.
If you’d like to explore whether this common surgery is right for your hernia, we invite you to come in and sit down with one of our surgical experts. To get started, please contact one of our offices in Valhalla, Carmel, or Poughkeepsie, New York, to schedule an appointment.
