Life After Hernia Repair: What Should I Know About Hernia Recurrence?

A hernia is a condition in which an organ or other tissue in your body pushes through a weak area in the surrounding muscle or fascia connective tissue. It can happen suddenly or over time through wear and tear. 

If you get a hernia, surgical repair is a common solution, but sometimes the hernia comes back. If this happens, you’ll need to know what you should do next, so let’s explore some hernia basics, the causes of a recurrence of the condition, and how we can treat it.

If you live in southern Orange County, California, and you’re struggling with a hernia, board-certified surgeon Dr. Elvira Klause and her dedicated medical staff in Laguna Hills can repair the problem and give you relief from the pain.

Hernia basics

As we mentioned above, this condition is the result of internal organs or other material pushing through a weakened area of muscle and tissue that contains it. You may develop a hernia due to strenuous labor or exercise, damage from injury, obesity, constipation, or aging. 

The telltale external bulge or lump can appear in several areas:

• Ventral — forms in your abdomen and can occur during pregnancy, after strenuous activity, and because of obesity
• Inguinal — protrudes through a weak area of your inguinal canal and is the most common type, forming near the groin
• Hiatal — due to a part of your stomach bulging through your diaphragm into weakened tissue in your chest cavity
• Umbilical — caused by your intestine protruding through your abdominal muscles near the belly button

This last type of hernia is common in babies and children. Other types include femoral hernias, which form underneath the inguinal canal near the groin, and epigastric hernias, which also form in the abdomen near the stomach and incisional hernias created from previous abdominal surgeries.

Causes of a hernia recurrence

Because surgery is a common solution for hernias, the repair itself could break down, leading to a recurrence of a hernia, which may appear as a bulge at the repair site and cause pain, nausea, and vomiting. 

This can result in an incisional hernia, which occurs due to tissue protruding through the incision after surgery. The repair can break down because of problems with infection, improper healing, or issues with the initial repair during the surgery. 

Left untreated, it can cause problems like an incarcerated hernia (trapping of the intestines), digestive obstruction, or a strangulated hernia caused by a loss of blood supply.

Methods of treatment

To fix hernia recurrence, you need surgery, but there are options: 

Open surgery

With open surgery, Dr. Klause can restore proper function to the abdominal wall, and if the recurrent problem is complex, it’s easier to manage. Using this method, she can move the tissue to its original position and place mesh to reinforce the weakened area.

Laparoscopic surgery

We can better manage a simple recurrent hernia with this form of surgery, which uses less invasive equipment that can help preserve the tissue and avoid the scar tissue the original procedure created. Many of our hernia patients are good candidates for this option.

Complications like recurrence can result from hernia repair, but it can be managed, and we can help. Make an appointment with Dr. Klause and our team in Laguna Hills, California, if you’re experiencing issues after hernia repair.