file.newsgroup.med.59015 Maven / Gradle / Ivy
From: [email protected] (Howard R Doyle)
Subject: Re: Hernia
In article [email protected] (Steve Heffner) writes:
>A bit more than a year ago, a hernia in my right groin was
>discovered. It had produced a dull pain in that area. The hernia
>was repaired using the least intrusive (orthoscopic?) method and a
>"plug and patch".
I suspect you mean laparoscopic instead of orthoscopic.
>Now the pain occurs more often. My GP couldn't identify any
>specific problem. The surgen who performed the original procedure
>now says that yes there is a "new" hernia in the same area and he
>said that he has to cut into the area for the repair this time.
>
>My question to the net: Is there a nonintrusive method to
>determine if in fact there is a hernia or if the pain is from
>something else?
By far the (still) best method to diagnose a hernia is old fashioned
physical examination. If you have an obvious hernia sac coming down
into your scrotum, or a bulge in your groin that is brought about by
increasing intra-abdominal pressure....
Sometimes is not that obvious. The hernia is small and you can only
detect it by putting your finger into the inguinal canal.
Whether you have a recurrent hernia, or this is related to the previous
operation, I can't tell you. The person that examined you is in the best
position to make that determination.
Are there non-invasive ways of diagnosing a hernia? Every now and then
folks write about CT scans and ultrasounds for this. But these are far
too expensive, and unlikely to be better than a trained examining finger.
====================================
Howard Doyle
[email protected]