“How painful is inguinal hernia surgery?”
I am a 52 year old male and I will have inguinal hernia surgery. How painful is inguinal hernia surgery?
3 Answers
Dr. David Carlson
Surgeon
The answer depends on the kind of surgery you had to fix your hernia. Was an incision made? Was it carried out laparoscopically or robotically? Different people have different pain tolerances. Some patients just take over the counter medicine and some patients require a prescription pain medicine for a day or two.
If you optimize your internal wound healing repair system prior to surgery by taking Vitamins and make sure you are not Vitamin D/B12 and anemic, it will be mild, otherwise it can be very painful.
I usually do a nerve block for my patients at the time of surgery that lasts about 48-72 hours. I typically will prescribe a low dose prescription pain killer for 5 days after surgery and rarely, if ever, have to refill that. Two weeks after surgery, most patients do not need to even take Tylenol or Advil.
