Symptoms and Treatment

Symptoms

Inguinal hernia
Inguinal hernias are common and can affect men, women and children, although they occur 25 times more often in men than in women. Symptoms of an inguinal hernia include pain in the groin area when coughing, sneezing, or lifting. Often people may notice a slight bulge or protrusion in the groin area that they are able to "push back in." Other symptoms include constipation and blood in the stool.

Umbilical hernia
Umbilical hernias are most common in infants, but they can affect adults as well. Characterized by a weak spot in the abdominal muscles around the bellybutton area they are usually identified by the presence of a bulge only when crying, coughing or straining.

Ventral hernia
Ventral hernia is the term that encompasses all abdominal wall hernias. It is most commonly used to refer to hernias occurring in areas that do not already have another name.

Hiatal
A hiatal hernia occurs when part of your stomach pushes upward through your diaphragm. Symptoms may include heartburn, belching, chest pain or nausea. A large hiatal hernia can allow food and acid to back up into your esophagus, leading to heartburn and chest pain; which are signs of gastroesophageal reflux (GERD).

Incisional
Incisional hernias are most likely to occur in obese and pregnant patients and they occur at the site of a previous surgical incision in the abdominal wall. A bulge in the abdomen when coughing, sneezing, straining, or lifting a heavy object is an indication of an incisional hernia.

Treatments

There are two general types of hernia operations:

Traditional (non-mesh) An incision is made in your groin and the surgeon pushes the protruding intestine back into the abdomen and repairs the weakened or torn muscle by sewing it together. Recovery may be four to six weeks to fully resume your normal activities.

Mesh Repair The surgeon inserts a piece of synthetic mesh to cover the entire inguinal area as a patch. The patch is secured with sutures, clips or staples. The procedure can be performed laparoscopically, using small incisions rather than one large one. A tiny camera is inserted into the abdomen through one incision and the surgeon uses miniaturized instruments inserted through the other incisions to perform the surgery. Surgeries done laparoscopically include less pain and scarring after surgery and a quicker return to normal activities. This technique is often used for people who have hernias on both sides of the body.