“When writing our most recent paper, I wasn’t so surprised that my volume of mesh removals had increased. I also like to share my experience in this realm, to make sure whatever I learn is disseminated to other surgeons.
In fact, one in four of my operations is for mesh removal. “A growing proportion of my practice includes mesh removal. Part of our role as surgeons is to understand our patients’ complaints and to objectively and compassionately explain to them why they would benefit from an operation such as mesh removal and also when they have no indication for mesh removal. “Nevertheless, even though a small percentage of patients have a hernia or mesh-related complication, the whole number of patients with complaints can be high. In the US, we perform about one million hernia repairs every year. The large majority of patients do fine with mesh with no long-term complications. Some are afraid they will have a future mesh-related problem. Some are told their mesh needs to be removed because they saw an ad for a hernia lawsuit. Towfigh: “I have patients who call my office requesting their mesh be removed: Some believe their mesh has been recalled. What are the trends in mesh removal requests, as you’ve seen over the years? Do more patients want their mesh removed, for example? Dr. Q: You’ve been performing hernia repairs since 2002 as a general surgeon and exclusively dedicated your practice to hernias since 2008.
Lichtenstein, who invented the Lichtenstein onlay mesh inguinal hernia repair. Towfigh says mesh repair for inguinal hernia was invented to reduce recovery pain, improve recurrences, and turn a previously inpatient procedure into an outpatient procedure. This may be secondary to the American Medical Association’s lag in addressing less common procedures.ĭr.
#Meshlab center mesh code#
Interestingly, mesh removal has also been performed since then, but there is still no specific code to bill for mesh removal, she tells MND. Mesh-based hernia repair first became popular in the 1980s. As a result, despite being one of the most common operations performed, it gets little funding for research and is one of the poorest reimbursed operations in general surgery. Trained as a general surgeon, she tells Mesh News Desk that hernias are not a “sexy topic” of discussion, unlike other specialties such as trauma or cardiac surgery. Towfigh opened the Beverly Hills Hernia Center in 2013, where she treats hernias and hernia-related complications. Pain and infection were the most common reasons for mesh removal in the groin and abdomen, respectively.ĭr. Most were in males (58%), with an average pain score of five out of 10. Towfigh and colleagues reported on 105 hernia meshes that they removed. In a published study last month, ( here), Dr. An even larger percentage of patients are requesting that the medical device be removed. Last year, that number increased to 22 percent. Towfigh generally has 13 percent of her hernia practice dedicated to mesh removal. She also manages a forum for discussion. Shirin Towfigh, of Beverly Hills Hernia Center. Now a leading hernia surgeon specialist is seeing an increase in requests for hernia mesh removal. Complications are similar between pelvic and hernia mesh patients. It is the same material that has been made into pelvic mesh and caused hundreds of thousands of complications worldwide.
#Meshlab center mesh series#
Shirin Towfigh Mesh News Desk is preparing a series of stories on hernia mesh as litigation begins to focus on this polypropylene medical device.
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