If it’s been 6 months (or more!) after your hernia repair and you have excruciating pain—including when you sit, turn, wear a belt or underwear with elastic banding, attempt physical intimacy, take a shower, etc.—stop whatever you are doing and call our office.
(Seriously, do it right now!)
We know you are having intense symptoms and pain, but this doesn’t have to be the case—you can absolutely do something about it.
The good news is that your first step isn’t even painful. All you have to do is take a moment to contact a peripheral nerve specialist who has been able to help numerous patients who had the exact same symptoms and problems you are experiencing.
In part, the reason we’ve been able to help so many patients who were suffering from groin pain following hernia surgery is because this is a fairly common occurrence. In fact, there’s an approximately 30% chance a patient will have disabling pain after the procedure. Now, that doesn’t mean the surgery can be avoided!
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Instead, what it means is you need to realize this pain is a possibility, but also there is hope.
Now, if it’s been less than 6 months following your surgery, it’s important to start with conservative treatment options. There can be a certain amount of pain or discomfort expected following a surgical procedure, and you may be able to find relief from methods like physical therapy or steroid treatment. In some cases, pain management specialists may be able to help you until the pain starts to subside on its own.
Pain For Months After Hernia Surgery
If it has been longer than 6 months, however, something is going on—perhaps a nerve has a suture stitched through it or has been caught in surgical mesh used during the hernia repair—and we may be able to help.
To determine if one of our procedures might provide the relief you need, we will start by evaluating your condition and then attempting a nerve block. If the nerve block works, the odds are quite good (roughly 85%) we will be able to take away the pain. If the nerve block doesn’t, there is still a chance we can help, the odds are just not as strong as they are in the previous case.
After the nerve block and initial evaluation, we will discuss your options. In the event we both agree surgery is the best approach for resolving your problem, you can expect an outpatient procedure performed under local or general anesthesia that takes roughly one hour for each side. In most cases, we can even reuse the initial incision and do not have to make a new one.
Depending on your specific case, the core problem could be a painful neuroma on any of your ilioinguinal, iliohypogastric, or genitofemoral nerves. To stop the pain, we may need to remove nerve tissue.
Following this procedure, your groin may be number for up to a few hours and you will need to ice the area for about two hours. At that point, you will likely be able to walk, sit, and resume your normal daily activities.
As a reminder – there is no need to have your life disrupted by intense pain after a hernia repair! Call our office and let us help.
We also provide similar services for patients who are having issues following vasectomies, tummy tucks, and Caesarian sections (C-sections). As with hernia repairs, there could be a nerve damaged during the procedure and we may be able to fix this for you.
Contact A Doctor To Address Your Pain
You can reach our Baltimore, MD office by calling (410) 337-5400 or by filling out a contact form here.
