Evaluating Potential Risks of Waiting to Repair a Hernia
We have established that having a hernia does not necessarily require surgical repair.
Early detection is a critical part of surgical success whether it is a hernia, breast cancer, gallbladder problems or any other issue requiring surgical treatment. Recognizing the symptoms and acting upon them is critical to make sure the disease doesn’t progress causing more pain and eventually complications.
Early detection is touted as a life-saver in the cancer field and rightly so. Cancer spreads both within the organ and throughout the body. That means that finding it as soon as possible gives the patient a better chance of successful treatment and/or remission. Early detection can preserve soft tissue such as in the case of breast cancer or preventing the spread of the disease into other organs or parts of the body.
While it is not as widely talked about, the same is true for other procedures as well. Take a hernia, for example. Hernias do not go away. In fact, they only get worse. While a minor hernia may present relatively little pain and the patient feels barely a bulge in their abdomen, the hernia can easily start to grow and become very difficult to manage during surgery. This is the case with just about any condition to be treated surgically. As the diseases or problem progresses, it not only becomes more painful, but also more difficult to correct.
The ultimate result is that patients may experience longer recovery time and may need multiple surgeries to correct an issue that could have been handled much more easily when it was in its infancy. Ultimately, being screened routinely in a primary care well-visit can help the patient understand if they do indeed have an emerging problem. If they, along with their physician, determine that they do have a problem, acting swiftly to correct it will usually yield better results than waiting for the problem to progress and deteriorate.
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