Patients Perspective- Laparoscopic Or Open Hernia Surgery

Lifestyle diseases have become a part of our daily lives. We either tend to ignore them or treat them and move on. Diseases like gallstones, heart disease, diabetes, sugar, migraine, etc are all mostly lifestyle diseases. If we live an unhealthy life, these diseases persist in our lives. A hernia is also one such common lifestyle disease. Lifting heavy objects, prolonged diarrhea or constipation, persistent coughing or sneezing, obesity, poor nutrition, and smoking can all weaken muscles and lead to a hernia. 

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Unlike some diseases, the hernia has a permanent treatment, hernia surgery. Due to the advancement of technology and medical science, there are two ways to treat hernia surgery- open hernia surgery and Laparoscopic Hernia surgery. In open surgery, a horizontal entry point of 3 to 6 inches is made in the abdomen to operate on the hernia using a mesh. In laparoscopic hernia surgery, 3-4 small incisions are made and a laparoscope is used to operate on the hernia. Both of these surgeries have their advantages and disadvantages. Some doctors recommend open surgery and others recommend laparoscopic surgery. 

So we took a survey of at least 5 hospitals of Varanasi and talked to their patients of hernia surgery. We randomly chose ten hernia surgery patients from these hospitals without knowing any more details. Out of ten, six of them had laparoscopic hernia surgery and, four of them had open hernia surgery. The survey led to several observations:

Out of six of the laparoscopic surgery patients, four of them were much satisfied. They said that the process of the surgery was less time consuming, less stressful, and less painful. The other two patients had a 90% satisfactory opinion saying they considered both options before going for surgery.  As much as the process is less painful and less time consuming, it is also costly. Also being a bit traditional they couldn’t exactly trust the use of a machine in the surgery and how much effective it would be. But after the doctor sat them down and showed them the whole process they were onboard. Furthermore, it was clearly, cost-effective.

On the other hand, one of the four patients of open surgery told “ I had hernia for ten years. As it wasn’t bothering me much, I kept ignoring it. But for the past few months, I started feeling pain and strain in that area. I started having indigestion problem. Finally, I went to my family doctor and, he said it won’t be wise to ignore my hernia anymore. When I came to the hospital to visit the specialist, he recommended open hernia surgery. As my hernia has been left untreated, it can be risky to treat it with laparoscopic surgery.” He went on to say that whatever advantages Laparoscopic hernia operation may have, he has to to be satisfied with open surgery itself. 

One of the other patients gave his opinion that being a 70-year-old retired person can be hard sometimes. He had open surgery due to the seemingly lower cost, but it took a lot out of him physically. Although the surgery went on without a hitch, the real problem came after the surgery. It took almost a week before the hospital discharged him and the first three days was painful. Even after the surgery, he had to be very cautious about his lifestyle for two months after the surgery. 

All in all, it turned out that although open surgery is necessary in some cases, Laparoscopic hernia surgery is the first preference for most patients.

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