A new technique of mesh-free inguinal hernia operation developed by an Indian surgeon from Pune has been included in the “Baily & Love Text book of Surgery”, an internationally reputed and widely read text book. This technique called as “Desarda Technique” is published in February 2013 in the 26th edition of this text book. This technique has now become a part of the curriculum and will be taught to all medical students and graduates.
Majority of the surgeons today use mesh for hernia surgery. This mesh is a piece of cloth prepared from the synthetic threads like Polyester or Polypropylene. This is a foreign body so naturally it is associated with many complications like recurrence, infection, rejection, migration, perforation, pain, testicular necrosis etc. Life of the patient gets affected if there are any of these complications.
A famous Pune based surgeon, Dr. Mohan Desarda, through his extensive research proved that hernia is not caused by chronic cough or job of weight lifting. He scrapped old concepts and published new concepts and also developed a new technique of hernia surgery that is accepted and acclaimed worldwide. This technique does not require any foreign body like mesh or any costly equipment like endoscopes during the surgery. Naturally, it is much safe and gives excellent results with fast recovery within a week without fear of any recurrence.
WEBSITE: www.desarda.com EMAIL: desarda@hotmail.com

Hernia disease is now generally known to common people just as appendicitis is known. When a bulge or swelling appears in the groin, every body knows that it is hernia. So bulge or swelling due to any other disease might be mistaken as hernia bulge. Like wise, hernia occurs only in the groin is also a misconception. It can occur any where inside the body as well as visibly out side the body. The hernias which are visible on the surface of the body mainly occur on the abdomen.
When any organ of our body or part of it leaves its original place and enters into other cavity through a defect or hole, it forms a hernia sac. This sac becomes visible on the abdomen when intestines enter in to it on coughing. This bulge seen on the abdomen is called as hernia. It is seen in nearly 1-1.5% of our people but this incidence is higher (2-3%) in the western countries and Africa. Abdominal wall hernias are given different names depending on the area where they arise. Inguinal hernia, umbilical hernia, epigastric hernia, lumbar hernia, spigelion hernia etc. are some of such hernias that are seen on the abdominal wall. Hernias can occur inside the body also that are not visible outside. Diaphragmatic hernia is an example of this.
Why hernia forms? Every body naturally wants to know as to why at all hernia forms in their body or on abdomen. What are the reasons? Weakness of the abdominal wall muscle cover at some place or spot is the main reason. Then if by any reason say like coughing or straining while passing stools or urine, intra-abdominal pressure rises and the result is the hernia formation through the weak spot. Chronic cough as seen in asthmatic patients, job of lifting heavy weights, constipation, obstruction in passing urine due to enlarged prostate are some of the important reasons that precipitates the hernia formation in the groin or at some other place on abdomen. Stretching of muscles as seen in pregnancy or ascitis can also result in hernia formation. These reasons are not seen in children; still they are affected with hernia due to pre formed hernia sac.
What are the symptoms: A soft swelling appearing in the groin that increases in size after coughing and disappears after lying down or during sleep then you can think that it is groin hernia. This groin swelling is small betel nut size in the beginning but later if kept untreated goes on increasing and enters in the scrotum also. Initially, this bulge can be pushed inside the abdomen but later it becomes impossible to push them back because intestines get adherent to the hernia sac. There is no pain in this hernia swelling. That is the main reason why people are not serious about its early treatment. In general, pain in hernia is to be understood as an alarming symptom. It occurs whenever this hernia gets obstructed and you can not push intestines back or when hernia gets strangulated, a serious condition. Blood supply to the intestines gets cut off and they start dying inside the hernia sac during the process of strangulation. Patient does not allow touching the hernia swelling because it becomes painful and tender. Some times, intestines get perforated inside the sac and peritonitis takes place. Patient starts vomiting, there is abdominal distension and general condition of the patient deteriorates fast. This is a life threatening emergency and needs to be operated immediately to save the life of the patient. Therefore, it is advised that hernia should be treated as early as possible and not to wait till it starts paining.
Examination & treatment: Examination of hernia gives an idea about the type of hernia and whether there are any complications developed in it. What type of organ e.g. intestines or omentum has entered the hernia sac is also judged. Then general examination is done to find out whether patient is having any systemic disease like bronchitis, hypertension, heart disease, enlarged prostate etc. Some blood tests, x-ray chest or ECG. is done to find out whether patient is fit to undergo surgery. If there are some serious complications developed in hernia and patient needs urgent surgery to save his life then patient can be taken for surgery without doing these tests also. Just as a torn shirt needs stitching to repair it, similarly this torn shirt of abdominal muscles also need proper stitching to repair the hernia. First of all the hernia sac is separated from other tissues and it is excised. Second part of the operation is to stitch the hernia hole to prevent hernia formation again. This is called as herniorrhaphy or hernioplasty. Therefore, do not believe if some body assures you that hernia can be cured without surgery and with medicines or some other means. Many times patients are advised to do exercises so as to strengthen the muscles and cure the hernia. It is absolutely wrong to do exercises when there is hernia because every exercise increases the intra-abdominal pressure and that tends to increase the size of hernia. Some times advice of using a hernia truss is given to avoid the surgery. This hernia truss or hernia belt is fitted on the hernia hole in an attempt to prevent it from coming outside. This is not cure to the hernia. At the most you can postpone surgery for some time by using it. But now surgeons clearly advise not to use truss in any situation because of its complications. Hernia belt slips from the hernia hole due to movements and the intestines can get obstructed easily giving rise to a dangerous situation of obstruction or strangulation.
Hernia operation is done by stitching a piece of synthetic cloth called as mesh on the hernia hole. Polypropylene, polyethylene, prolene, Dacron, Teflon is such synthetic chemical thread from which mesh is prepared. This mesh is imported and costly also. Therefore, at many places a low quality mesh is used to save on the cost. This increases the chances of hernia reappearing or getting infected. Recurrence, infection, pain, mesh migration are some of the well documented complications associated with this mesh repair because mesh is a synthetic cloth and a foreign body. Re-operation is the only remedy to treat those complications and this re-surgery is very difficult, complicated and commanding even in the hands of expert surgeons because mesh causes extensive damage to the nearby tissues and fibrosis. Techniques older than this are now discarded because they all had unacceptable rate of surgery failures.
A new technique- “Dr. Desarda repair”: A search to find out some operation technique that
does not use mesh and gives excellent results was going on through out the world. Desarda repair introduced in the market in year 2001 became immediately popular because it gives what you want and that too without use of any foreign body like mesh. This operation is done by taking a cut on the skin. It is simple and does not require any foreign body like mesh or any complicated instruments like endoscopes. A strip of a nearby muscle is separated and stitched on the weak spot to cover the hernia hole. There is no foreign body like mesh or no endoscopes are required therefore, this operation is free from all complications and risks that are associated with the mesh or laparoscopic repair. There is no tension on the stitches or muscles as seen in Bassini-Shouldice operation. Therefore, there are no complications and risks that are associated with the Bassini- Shouldice operation. Hernia hole is covered by a strong muscle. Therefore, protection starts on the operation table itself. Patient is admitted in the morning and immediately taken for surgery after preparation. Operation is done under local or spinal anaesthesia. No general anaesthesia is required. Operation is completed in 30 minutes and patient is back on his feet as soon as anaesthesia effect is gone. Patient goes to bathroom on his own within couple of hours and moves freely in the wards afterwards and goes home same day night or next day morning. Patients are allowed to drive car and go to office, bend, squat, climb up the staircase or carry luggage and travel. All foreign patients coming to Indian Hernia Institute go back to their country on third day carrying their luggage and a journey of 20-22 hours without any difficulty. The most important quality of this operation is that there is virtually no recurrence or pain. This operation is spreading rapidly around the globe and today it is being followed in many countries.

Interested patients and doctors can contact Dr. Desarda on his mobile no. 0091 (0)9373322178 or log on to his website http://desarda.webs.com or http://herniasurgery.tripod.com

When some part of our body leaves its original place and enters in to other cavity or comes out on the body surface then we call it as a hernia formation. Operation is the only remedy to get relief from this disease. Patient will not mind to get operated if he is sure that he is going to be hernia free after surgery. But this does not happen in many patients because rate of relapse or reappearance of hernia at the same place is also quite high and unacceptable. Mesh, which is a piece of synthetic cloth, was introduced in the market in 1990 for use in hernia repairs. We stitch a small piece of cloth to repair our torn shirt. Same principle is used in mesh repairs where in this mesh is stitched on the weak spot or hernia hole to give protection and prevent recurrence. Relapse rate or failure rate after groin hernia surgery has come down to 7-8% in USA after every body started doing hernia surgery by using a mesh, but it failed to give complete cure.
Majority of the hernias, almost 99%, are external and seen on the body surface and majority of them are seen on the abdominal wall. Amongst them, the groin hernias are seen in almost 75% of patients. But in India, proportion of other abdominal wall hernias like umbilical, epigastric, ventral or incisional hernia is also quite high. Our intestines are kept in a delicate balloon like bag in side the abdomen and protection is given by 3 layers of muscles all around them. When these muscles get damaged at some spot then that becomes a weak spot or hernia hole from where hernia formation takes place. This damage can happen due to surgery or stretching due to pregnancy or ascitis or they get weakened due to aging or some other disease.

In all traditionally done hernia surgeries, hernia sac is excised and a mesh is stitched on this weak spot or this hernia hole in an attempt to give protection to the weak spot and prevent relapse or recurrence. But this does not happen immediately after surgery because this mesh is delicate like a mosquito net. Then why it is stitched if it does not give protection? A foreign body reaction sets in and around the mesh and tissue penetrates in it to form a delicate curtain on the weak spot. This takes couple of months and then it takes another 2-3 years to get sufficient strength in it to give protection. It means the patient is not fully protected for 2-3 years in spite of mesh surgery. If patient gets an attack of cough or sneezing or some such other instance during this period then this mesh gets torn or stitches get torn or mesh moves away from the stitched place and relapse of hernia takes place. Another important reason for more relapses or recurrences seen in India is the low quality mesh used to save on the cost. This low quality mesh shrinks by 50-60% in side the body. Naturally there is increased tension on the sutures due to this shrinkage that tend to break beyond certain limits inviting hernia recurrence. Mesh shrinkage or mesh migrations are well documented complications inviting failures after the mesh surgeries. All hernia surgeries are done by hernia experts or consultants in USA, but, paradoxically in India, hernia surgeries are dedicated to the resident doctors who are not expert in hernia surgeries. This is also one of the important reasons for high rate of hernia recurrences in India.
A story of 38 year old Mr. David from USA is worth listening. He had left groin hernia since 2 years. He consulted with 2-3 consultants and hernia experts in Los Angeles, All of them had said that they will repair his hernia with a mesh. As is done by every American, David also did his own thorough search on the internet to get more knowledge about groin hernias. He found that almost 30 out 100 patients operated with mesh had suffered either from recurrence or chronic groin pain or infection or mesh migration in to the abdomen. These patients had undergone either open surgeries or endoscopic surgeries. So he started search to find out whether there is any centre which does hernia surgeries without using mesh. To his amazement, he found only two such centre all over the world. One was Shouldice centre in Canada and another was “Desarda Centre” in Pune from India. During his further search, he found that Shouldice centre use stainless steel wires to sutures and there is 1-2% of recurrence. So he chose Desarda Centre and came here to our Indian Hernia Institute to get his hernia set right. This story did not end with David, but many more patients from USA, France, and Australia etc have visited our centre for their hernia repairs. The main reason why every body now prefers to come to our centre for his hernia repair is that we do not use any foreign body like mesh. Therefore, no complications are seen in our repairs that are associated with mesh. We use a strip of near by strong muscle to cover the weak spot or hernia hole. Therefore, protection starts on the operation table itself. And patient gets almost complete cure without any fear of relapse or recurrence in future.

Dr. Desarda has operated on more than 1500 patients till today by this new technique and all of them are well and without any recurrence till today. This operation does not require general anesthesia, it is done under local or spinal anesthesia. Patient is admitted in the morning and taken for surgery immediately after preparation. Time required for surgery is average 30 minutes and patient can be on his foot as soon as anesthesia effect is gone. Normally patient goes to pass urine on his own within 4-5 hours and he is freely mobile in the wards same day night or next day morning ready to get discharged and go home. There are no restrictions on his movements or food intake. He can drive car and go to office, can climb a staircase, can carry luggage and travel, squat and sit down without much pain within 2-3 days. He is asked to carry his normal routine work as soon as possible and as per his tolerance. So, patient gets high level of satisfaction after this new operation technique. All foreign patients coming to Indian Hernia Institute go back to their country on third day carrying their luggage and a journey of 20-22 hours without any difficulty. The most important quality of this operation is that there is virtually no recurrence or pain. This operation is spreading quite rapidly all around the globe and today it is being followed in many countries.

Interested patients and doctors can contact Dr. Desarda on his mobile no. 0091 (0)9373322178 or log on to his website http://herniasurgery.tripod.com or http://desarda.webs.com