Hernia Surgery
The skilled and compassionate physicians at Piedmont Medical Center provide hernia surgery in Rock Hill, SC. A hernia occurs when fatty tissue or an organ protrudes through a weak area in the muscular wall of the abdomen. This causes a bulge under the skin of the abdomen, usually near the groin or abdomen. Hernias do not typically get better on their own, often grow bigger, and in rare cases, can lead to life-threatening complications. A hernia operation pushes the bulge back into the body part where it belongs, and makes sure it stays there. There are six types of hernias:
- Epigastric
- Femoral
- Hiatal
- Incisional
- Inguinal
- Umbilical
While not all hernias require surgery, a doctor will likely recommend it if the hernia is causing pain or discomfort, limiting your daily activities, growing larger, or if your doctor is concerned about the risk of the bowels becoming trapped. A big concern with hernias is when they become incarcerated or strangulated.
When a hernia becomes incarcerated, part of the intestine or abdominal tissue gets trapped in the hernia and can’t be pushed back into place, causing constant pressure or discomfort for the patient. This could even prevent stool from passing through the intestine. When part of the intestine gets tightly trapped in the hernia, it becomes strangulated, blocking off the blood supply and causing tissue to die. In the event of an incarcerated or strangulated hernia, immediate surgery is necessary.
A hernia can be repaired using traditional (open) or laparoscopic surgery. During open hernia surgery, the surgeon cuts open the patient’s body to manually repair the hernia through an opening that is several inches long. During a less-invasive laparoscopic hernia surgery, the surgeon makes several small incisions, inserts a laparoscope and long-handled instruments through these incisions, and repairs the hernia using camera images from the laparoscope and the instruments that were inserted into the incisions.