Epigastric Hernia?

kerri · Newbie Joined: 26 Dec 2006 Posts: 14

My son is now 3 y/o child and he was diagnosed with epigastric hernia at about 9 months of age and we were advised not to remove it but now his epigastric hernia has grown much and lately it has become even painful especially when coughing or running. Anyway we are now advised to remove this epigastric hernia by surgery and though I know that those surgeries involving removing of epigastric hernia are actually not a big deal but anyway I am worried about possible epigastric hernia surgery complications. Thanks!

caroljean · Gold Member Joined: 24 Aug 2005 Posts: 356

You are right regarding the severity of the epigatric hernia-it practically looks like this-some incision is made to remove the hernia and the tummy went closed up with some strong stitches and usually the patient may go home the same day despite the fact that epigastric hernia is performed under the general anesthesia. And as for removing epigastric hernia complications there are no special dangerous except those common in surgery performed under general anesthesia involving lungs and heart. Also it may happen though it is very rare that the wound swells and get inflamed and usually those are the signs of possible epigastric hernia relapse.

teach86 · Newbie Joined: 14 May 2007 Posts: 1

Hi,
My daughter had an epigastric hernia repair when she was 18 months old. We pointed out what we thought was a small hernia to her pediatrician, who sent us to a surgeon. The sugeon explained that her hernia actually was one of the larger ones he saw and recommended surgery to repair it.
Her surgery was done as same day surgery. I don't even think that it took a whole hour from start to finish. We were really scared, of course, but had faith in the surgeon. I guess this type of surgery is pretty routine in that our surgeon (at a large children's hospital) did not even need to see her after we went home after her surgery! If complications arose, or we had questions, he told us to bring her in, but we did not need to. After surgery, the belly area looks even more swollen, and that is to be expected. The surgeon explained to us that it would take a while for the post-surgerybump to go away, and it is slowly going away. Later on that day she was doing all her usual things, with no signs that she even had had surgery. It was amazing!
A side note is that her anesthiologist decided to keep her on gas, and not entubate her, because it was to be a quick surgery. Seeing her right after surgery was scary, and I wish they would have prepared me, so I am preparing you, in case you choose to have surgery and they use gas exclusively. Her face looked distorted from the mask. It was red and puffy. She was crying very hard and without really seeming awake, yet she was calling out to us. This was very upsetting and we were told it was very typical. It took maybe twenty minutes for her to calm down, and when she did, she quickly came back to her normal self, and walked out of recovery maybe 45minutes to an hour after surgery!
Best of luck with whatever decision you make.

Epigastric Hernia?

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