The CAPE TOWN HERNIA CLINIC is a clinic that has a special interest in the repair of all hernias. It is located at the Milnerton Medi-Clinic, in the coastal suburb of Milnerton, only 10km from the centre of Cape Town.

The clinic offers a one-stop hernia repair service for groin hernias on an out patients/day case basis. This modern hospital has state of the art theatres and equipment. It is easily accessible and every effort is made to make our patient's stay as trouble free and convenient as possible.

WHAT IS A HERNIA?

A hernia is a protrusion of an organ through a weakness in the muscular wall of the cavity in which the organ is contained. This weakness may be present at birth (congenital) or develop as an age related event in later life. It may also occur at the site of a scar from a previous operation (incisional hernia).

WHERE DO HERNIAS OCCUR?

Most hernias occur in the abdominal cavity. The most common sites are:
GROIN HERNIAS (INGUINAL OR FEMORAL) and UMBILICAL HERNIAS

Other less common hernias are VENTRAL HERNIAS, INCISIONAL HERNIAS, EPIGASTRIC HERNIAS, STOMAL HERNIAS, HIATAL HERNIAS

HOW DO HERNIAS PRESENT?

A bulge in the abdominal wall or groin area. This typically appears or enlarges on standing up, coughing, or straining the abdominal muscles. Occasionally the hernia is accompanied by sharp or dull pain while having a bowel action or passing urine and may become worse on prolonged standing.

WHAT CAN HAPPEN IF I DON'T HAVE MY HERNIA TREATED?

The problem with a hernia is not the "bulge" it produces, but what may happen to the hernia. The long term progression of a hernia is that it will become larger with the passage of time. The danger is that the organ protruding through the hole in the abdominal wall may become pinched off, and the blood supply of that piece of tissue compromised. This rapidly leads to the death of that tissue (strangulation) and the need for urgent (and unnecessary) dangerous surgery.

Hernias cannot be treated with medication and the only cure is surgery.

TYPES OF SURGERY FOR GROIN HERNIAS.

For years all hernias were repaired by an incision over the swelling, through which the tissues were pulled together, or darned. These repairs subjected the already weak tissues to further tension, and not surprisingly, had an up to 20% recurrence rate often associated with chronic pain.

The first significant advance in hernia repair was the insertion of a nylon patch (Lichtenstein technique) which resulted in a tension-free repair, and with a much lower recurrence rate.

With the advent of "keyhole surgery" in the early 1990's, it became clear that it was possible to insert a large patch behind the defect in the abdominal wall, through a smaller incision.

Each of the "tension-free" repairs above has a much lower recurrence rate than the earlier operations.

WHAT OPERATION SHOULD I HAVE?

A review of Hernia Clinics world-wide will show that most of these centres will perform only one type of repair, even though the various operations each offer different benefits to different patients. For this reason, it is the policy of the Cape Town Hernia Clinic that every patient should be individually assessed and the best type of operation, best suited to that individual's needs, be offered. This choice ranges from open surgery, under local anaesthetic, to laparoscopic "keyhole" repair, under general anaesthetic.