The hernia repair performed at this Centre enables us to be confident against recurrence 'for life'. Unfortunately, however, repairs performed elsewhere are not this reliable and failures can and, all too often, do occur at any time in the patient's lifetime.

When a hernia repair operation breaks down (i.e. a 'recurrent' hernia) further repair operations are more difficult than the first and, to make matters worse, the chances of success actually diminish with each successive attempt at repair.

The same is true of the breakdown of the scar in the abdominal wall from an incision for a previous operation for some other problem. This is called an 'incisional' hernia. Thus the 'recurrent' hernia and the 'incisional' hernia are very similar in many respects, including the difficulties in effecting a reliable repair.
Unfortunately, there are also cases of 'multiple hernias' and of combinations of all the above, such as 'multiple, RECURRENT hernias'. These cases pose many difficulties to most surgeons and are, all too often, not successfully repaired

Not only are the tissues in the abdominal wall more scarred and therefore potentially harder to work on, but recurrent repair operations suffer a significant failure rate.
Subsequent repairs of recurrent hernias by the usual anterior (front) approach are followed by further recurrence in 20% and more of cases over the years. In some cases this is a serious hazard and multiple recurrences fare even worse, even exceeding a 50% chance of failure! (See below)

The 'front' approach of recurrent hernia repair carries the further risk in the case of a male patient of damage to the blood supply to the testicle when cutting through scar tissue in that area, which can lead to a patient losing a testicle as a result.
Because of this, together with the fact that the common approach is followed by an increasing incidence of recurrence, we prefer an entirely different and better method of repair in which we specialise.

Our operation is performed via an incision higher than the previous one(s) and the hernia itself is approached from behind the weakness in the abdominal muscles. There is, therefore, no need to cut through scar tissue and the described risks to the testis do not apply.
The hernia opening is then completely covered by a mesh 'veil' applied from the inside, making it virtually impossible for a further recurrence to take place. In effect, the whole area of abdominal wall surrounding the hernia site(s) becomes reinforced without really involving the area(s) previously operated upon

Because our technique avoids the usual, high levels of tissue trauma and the repair is 'tension-free', there is surprisingly little discomfort and recuperation is just as rapid as after our 'simpler' hernia repairs.
Patients are expected to be as active as possible from the first day i.e. walking 1 to 2 miles, swinging a golf club (or similar activity) and return to completely normal routine, work etcetera, often in 4 to 7 days.