i had a hernia repair using pig skin which disappeared now i am losing weight and they will sew my muscles togther using no mesh, have you heard of this procedure before?
Hi Mary Hamel, Yes the sewing of muscles together is called the Tension Technique, It's the old method of surgery repair of hernias long before Mesh was on the market. The problem is their is a high risk of recurrence of the hernia, mostly if their prior surgery. Reason why mesh was invented. Their is different names for this method one is called Mayo technique, vest over pants their are others. Tension does just that tension on the muscle tissue that with any pushing pulling heavy lifting good chance of tearing the muscle tissue and weakening area around it. You look up above this forum at technique and push on it, it will open up and tell you of the different techniques. I have this done on me and now 5 years later looking at recurrence of the same Ventral Hernia.
I had a non mesh repair when I was 15 and is still holding I am 46 now. I had a mesh repair on the opposite side that the plug and patch left me in a horrible condition. I would have the surgery with out mesh Linda is right there are different techniques for non mesh repair, with the best being a shouldice repair, but if the troubled area is small enough a Mcvay repair may be the way to go.
I was able to get the plug and patch removed and then a modified shouldice repair with out mesh was performed. If you back thru my previous posts you can read what the Pefix Plug and Patch did to me and to others also. These synthetic products are dangerous and they will go bad, some faster than others, but eventually they will go bad. If you are being offered a non-mesh repair I would do it, but I would also ask the surgeon how many of these procedures he has done and when the last one was. It is your body and it is your right to know exactly what, when and how this is going to be done. If you do not feel comfortable with the surgeon, then by all means get many opinions. Finding the right surgeon is key to a successful outcome.
Good luck.
GDSM
Hi, GDSM, Reading your comment your first repair was at 15, and still holding, but then sometime down the road it broke open on the other side. Which is going on in my case. Which is telling me that the iced over pond theory that Doctor Goodyears compares about hernias holds true to hernias. You put tension on the good muscle tissue to fix the bad hole you weaked the good tissue as the old gets filled in, then using mesh to fix second because now the tissue is to weak around the second hernia. In reading about the tension method repeated use of this method does it not disfigure the tissue to the point of it being like swiss cheese?? How long or many times can the body stand this method of repair? It kind of like robbing Peter to pay Paul.
