What method does the 79-year-old man take to do hernia surgery?

Wu Shuodong, MD, Director of the First Minimally Invasive Biliary Surgery, Shengjing Hospital, China Medical University;

Inguinal hernia, commonly known as "hernia", is a common disease, more common in men, and the incidence rate increases with age. It is because the supporting structure of abdominal wall has weak areas under the action of various pathological factors, which leads to the organs in abdominal cavity protruding out of the body through these parts. If the abdominal wall is compared to a fence, hernia is like a hole in the fence. Therefore, the most effective treatment is to make up for this "loophole" through surgery, which is called hernia repair in medicine.

In the past, the traditional repair method was to sew the "leak" in this weak area directly, but it was rarely used because of the high tension and easy recurrence. At present, artificial patch is usually used to repair it, just like putting a patch on this "loophole", which can obviously reduce the recurrence rate.

There are two ways to place the patch, open surgery and laparoscopic surgery. The former needs to cut open the layers of abdominal wall tissue and bury the patch in the abdominal wall. The operation itself caused great trauma to the weak hernia area, and the postoperative pain was relatively obvious, and the recovery time was longer. The latter laparoscopic surgery only establishes three small incisions of 0.5cm~ 1cm on the abdominal wall, and the patch can be placed through the abdominal cavity or directly at the abdominal wall level. Minimal surgical trauma, mild postoperative pain and quick recovery. At present, it has become a new generation of treatment. In addition, in recent years, single-hole laparoscopic surgery has appeared, which further narrows the surgical incision to a part of the umbilical region, and after healing, it is almost imperceptible to be covered by the umbilical region, with less trauma. For elderly patients, it is necessary to evaluate the surgical tolerance before operation, while laparoscopic surgery is usually feasible for patients without serious diseases such as heart and lung because of its small trauma and fast operation speed.