I am a 40 year old male who had an open inguinal hernia repair back in 2007. After a frustrating Summer of pain beneath the site of the incision more than two years later, I finally decided to consult with another surgeon. Physical examination revealed "scar tissue" at the site of the previous repair, but no apparent recurrent hernia or anything else unusual. As luck would have it, I've developed pain on the other side that is exacerbated by activity. While a hernia on the new side wasn't necessarily obvious, she could detect a small "pulse" there when I coughed. Two options were laid out for me: 1) Learn to live with the discomfort with daily use of ibuprofen or 2) Agree to an "exploratory" laparoscopic procedure in which she will attempt to find the source of the pain and fix it followed by a laparoscopic examination/repair on the new side during the same procedure.

My question: Does anyone have experience with laparoscopic examination to address post-herniorrhaphy pain syndrome after an open repair? My thinking is that it would be difficult to view all the potential sources of pain from the other side. I'm not sure I'm comfortable with taking on the risk of more pain. There are plenty of cases to read about here and elsewhere that are much worse than mine. The flip side is that it's tough to accept a situation of permanent discomfort and restricting the activities I enjoy without attempting to do something about it.

Thank You

I think Carl in a very early post had a lap repair after an open repair. But I think they took out the mesh first with an open procedure. Or maybe they took it out after the lap repair.

I am not sure if the original surgeon used too small a mesh to begin with.