I am trying to research hernia repair options that involve the least amount of foreign materials being left in the body. I have read a lot of positive stuff about a technique apparently developed by a Dr Desarda in India. Can anyone offer any insight or experience with this technique? I am a very active 35 year old male. I work in the construction industry and do a lot of bending to work with things at ground level as well as a good deal of moderate to heavy lifting. Any help, advice, information, etc, would be greatly appreciated.
He claims to have gotten zero recurrence rate and much less likelyhood of chronic pain. See this page for a brief description.
He says "a "patch" of external oblique aponeuroses is in place behind the spermatic cord, similarly to the way a Lichtenstein patch would be in place behind the spermatic cord."
Is this patch of "external oblique aponeuroses" strong enough to keep a hernia from recurring? I wonder what Dr Goodyear thinks about that? And if you separate a strip of EOA to use behind the cord, does this cause any problem when, at the time of closure, it is necessary to re-approximate the EOA above the cord?
Yes, I too would like to have some objective input from the medical community.
Based on what I've seen about Desarda's technique, at this point I would just like to find a surgeon who has done a few in this manner and get this thing fixed. It seems like a reasonably good repair. I don't want the mesh. The percentages of people with no problems or complaints isn't yet high enough for me. Also, I am only 35. This material needs to last half a century without any problems assuming I live to life expectancy. All too often something is discovered five, ten, fifteen years down the road on materials and implants and I don't want to take that chance. I want to try first the least amount of foreign material. If that technique does not fix it well enough and it becomes a more serious problem, then it makes sense to look at the more aggressive fixes. It seems logical to try a Desarda repair first and then if that fails, maybe a mesh product, rather than the other way around.
There are a couple things available on youtube regarding the Desarda procedure. You can watch most if not all of an actual surgery. It seems to me that there is much less chance of complications with his method. If his repair is strong enough to be equivalent to healthy non-herniated tissues that is good enough for me. Then the only foreign material is stitching.
Comments, opinions, experiences are all welcome and would be greatly appreciated.
I emailed Dr. Desarda and he could not give me one doctor in the US who does this kind of repair. I wonder if it is really related to something already done like Shoudice or Mcvey, etc.?
Also, the tissue they use is from nearby, and is retains its nerves and blood supply.
You can find surgeons that do it in Poland and a few other places. Dr Desardas site has a list of countries where it is done.
also, it costs only about $2000 including hospital stay and food. so after you fly to India and back and stay there a few days, it is still cheaper than having it done in the US.
Who wants to fly to India? The Desarda repair isn't available in the U.S. becasue it doesn't allow Johnson and Johnson a taste of the loot. If they don't get paid for their mesh they don't take out million dollar ads in the medical journals. Politics prevails.
I don't know where you live and to what degree you're willing to travel, but I highly recommend that you consider Dr. Bruce Ramshaw at the Univ. of Missouri hospital in Columbia, MO. Very knowledgeable and skilled, doing a large-scale of study of mesh and mesh complications, so will understand your issues and concerns, uses laparascopic approach, so you'll have a very high probability of smooth recovery and no pain complications, etc. I'm one of those guys with pain complications who's done a lot of research and suffering, and I'm looking into the possibility of a third surgery now. I just met with Dr. Ramshaw, and if I do decide eventually to do another surgery, it will likely be with him. He'll address your concerns skillfully...
