Varanasi Hospital

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Hernia Surgery

Sports Hernia – A Brief Introduction

A sports hernia is a painful, soft tissue injury that occurs in the groin area. It most often occurs during sports that require sudden changes of direction or intense twisting movements. An untreated sports hernia may lead to a traditional, abdominal hernia in future. It can be cured by laparoscopic hernia operation for complete recovery.

A sports hernia is a strain or tear of any soft tissue in the lower abdomen or groin area. The soft tissues most frequently affected by sports hernia are the oblique muscles in the lower abdomen. Especially vulnerable are the tendons that attach the oblique muscles to the pubic bone. In many cases of sports hernia, the tendons that attach the thigh muscles to the pubic bone are also stretched or torn.

The cause of this mainly related to sports activities that involve planting the feet and twisting with maximum exertion can cause a tear in the soft tissue of the lower abdomen or groin. Can occur mainly in vigorous sports such as ice hockey, soccer, wrestling, and football.

A sports hernia does not cause a visible bulge in the groin, like the more common, inguinal hernia does. Over time, this may lead to an inguinal hernia, and abdominal organs may press against the weakened soft tissues to form a visible bulge. Without treatment, this injury can result in chronic, disabling pain that prevents you from resuming sports activities.

The best solution to sports hernia is to get a Laparoscopic hernia operation. A laparoscopic repair requires several small incisions instead of a single larger cut. While open surgery is also done in this case. However, this requires large incisions and that means a long time to get recovered from the surgery scars. A sportsperson can’t afford to wait long for their recovery. That is why laparoscopic hernia operation is a must for sports people. It not only leaves you with smaller incisions, also it leaves you almost scarless. Recovery time will be much lesser as well.

Most likely a patient can return to light activity after 1 to 2 weeks. Strenuous exercise should wait until after 4 weeks of recovery. Studies have found that people have less pain after laparoscopic hernia repair than after open hernia surgery. The chance of a hernia coming back after laparoscopic surgery is really satisfactory, because it rarely comes back. However, in case of open surgery, it can come back.

To find out more about the comparison between open versus laparoscopic surgery click here:  http://www.varanasihospital.com/2017/06/13/hernia-surgery-recovery-open-vs-laparoscopic-approach/

Categories
Health

How Smoking Affects Your Health?

Smoking affects the entire body, increasing the risk of many life-threatening diseases. Which includes lung cancer, emphysema, liver diseases leading to operation and heart disease. Smoking also contributes to many cancers and diseases of the digestive system.

The liver, pancreas, and gallbladder are the solid organs of the digestive system. The digestive system helps the body digest food, which includes breaking food down into nutrients the body needs. Nutrients are substances the body uses for energy, growth, and cell repair.

Smoking has been found to increase the risk of cancers of the:

  • Mouth

  • Esophagus

  • Stomach

  • Pancreas

  • Liver

  • Colon

  • Rectum

Smoking contributes to many common disorders of the digestive system, such as heartburn and gastroesophageal reflux disease, peptic ulcers, and some liver diseases. Smoking increases the risk of Crohn’s disease, colon polyps, and pancreatitis, and it may increase the risk of gallstones too, but the liver endures the most damages.

The liver is the largest organ in the digestive system. The liver carries out many functions, such as making important blood proteins and bile, changing food into energy, and filtering alcohol and poisons from the blood. Research has shown that smoking harms the liver’s ability to process medications, alcohol, and other toxins and remove them from the body. In some cases, smoking may affect the dose of medication needed to treat an illness.

Smoking may worsen some liver diseases, which may lead to a liver operation. Smoking can turn your healthy body the victim of primary biliary cirrhosis, a chronic liver disease that slowly destroys the bile ducts in the liver. Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, a condition in which fat builds up in the liver.

Liver diseases may progress to cirrhosis, a condition in which the liver slowly deteriorates and malfunctions due to chronic injury. Scar tissue then replaces healthy liver tissue, partially blocking the flow of blood through the liver and impairing liver functions.

Smoking also affects the pancreas. Excessive smoking increases the risk of developing pancreatitis. Pancreatitis is inflammation of the pancreas, which is located behind the stomach and close to the duodenum. The pancreas secretes digestive enzymes that usually do not become active until they reach the small intestine. When the pancreas is inflamed, the digestive enzymes attack the tissues of the pancreas.

Gallstones can occur as the result of smoking. Some studies have shown that smoking may increase the risk of developing gallstones. Gallstones are small, hard particles that develop in the gallbladder, the organ that stores bile made by the liver. Gallstones can move into the ducts that carry digestive enzymes from the gallbladder, liver, and pancreas to the duodenum, causing inflammation, infection, and abdominal pain.

Apart from these, smoking can cause so many other severe problems. Excessive use of tobacco can lead you to liver operation with other diseases too. On 31st May, we observe World Tobacco Day, so let’s take a resolution to quit smoking for the good of our own good.

Categories
Pancreatic Surgery

Pancreatic Surgery Post-Op Care

Like all major operations, recovering from pancreatic surgery takes time too. Full recovery requires an average of two months for open surgery and about 2 weeks for laparoscopic surgery. Your recovery can be divided into different stages, each of which carries a different set of expectations. However, it is important to remember that every patient’s recovery is different, even if patients undergo the exact same procedure.

Let’s have a look at it in details-

Hospital Recovery After Pancreatic Surgery

Patients spend an average of 1-3 days in the hospital after pancreas surgery. While you are in the hospital, the members of your healthcare team will be checking in on you daily. Your in-house team consists of residents, medical students, nurses, and your surgeon. Your team will closely monitor your progress throughout your stay. You will be seen by residents and nurses several times each day and by your surgeon at least once each day.

It is normal to experience pain after pancreas surgery. While in the hospital, you will be able to manage your pain with intravenous pain medication. Once you are at home, you will manage your pain with oral medications prescribed by your healthcare team.

After your operation, you will have staples and special dressings where incisions were made during your procedure. Health care team will check your dressings regularly to ensure they are healing well and monitor any tubes to ensure proper drainage if any. It is normal to be discharged home with the surgical drainage tubes still in place, so do not be worried about your recovery if this happens to you. You will be given specific instructions on how to care for both the drainage tubes and your surgical dressing before you are discharged from the hospital.

Many people are eager to be discharged from the hospital after surgery, and your health care team will do everything they can to return you to your home life. Before they discharge you, there are certain requirements you must meet. You should:

  • Have a stable temperature and not show signs of fever
  • Have no unresolved medical or surgical issues
  • Be able to tolerate food and liquid
  • Be able to walk unassisted
  • After Discharge

You will be able to leave the hospital after a day or two. A full recovery from pancreas surgery can take two months or longer if it is an open surgery technique and about 2 weeks for laparoscopic surgery. During the recovery, your doctor will ask you to come into the hospital for postoperative evaluations. At your first postoperative visit, you will meet with your surgeon or a nurse practitioner who will review your pathology and surgical reports. Your incisions will be examined and staples and tubes will be removed. At this, and at subsequent postoperative evaluations, your team will also talk to you about your diet, bowel functions, and pain control to ensure you are recovering well.

Post-Operative Dietary Guidelines

After pancreatic surgery, it is normal to have minute difficulty eating or to experience nausea, vomiting or heartburn. These symptoms are caused by a condition known as “gastric ileus,”. It may take your digestive system anywhere between a week or two to return to normal.

In general, when recovering from a pancreatic operation, the goal should be to eat small, frequent meals or snacks every three hours. Eat a protein containing food first each meal to minimise the amount of muscle mass you may lose. It is important to remember to drink fluids between meals to stay hydrated.

In a nutshell, the post-operative care is much easier and convenient if it is a laparoscopic surgery instead of an open surgery.

Categories
Health

How To Choose The Best Hospital In Varanasi?

What makes a healthcare facility, the best hospital?

The answer is, a place where you can get the ultimate care and the best services, mainly the value of your money. One of the must-have features in the best hospitals should be the availability of laparoscopic surgery.

There are other points every patient’s family should notice while choosing the best hospital, these are as follows:

Check the Reviews:

Look for the reviews of different hospitals. Patients and their families usually give these based on their experiences in there. If the ratings are good enough and meet your requirements, you can definitely go to the hospital.

Patient Experience:

Ask an existing patient or a former one, who has been in that hospital. Ask them about their experiences. They will give you an insight of the place. They will tell you both bad and good points of the same. That way you can decide which place you can choose.

Hospital Practices:

Two measures are included under this heading, the use of electronic health records, and the availability of the state of the art technology and equipment. The doctors and nurses should be expert in their works. They should know what they are doing while treating a patient.

Advantages of Laparoscopic Surgery:

Check if the place provides laparoscopic surgery over open surgery or not. As smaller incisions are quick to heal and they are almost scarless, it is preferable for most patients. Moreover, open surgery has too many problems attached to it.

Distance from your House:

Check the distance of the hospital from your house. Because in case of an emergency you can check in to the place faster. If the admission is quick, the cure will be quicker and there will be lesser risks attached.

Know What Your Insurance Covers:

If you’ve recently learned that you need to get a surgery or so, your main focus should be to get the best care possible. However, understanding what your medical insurance covers and what it doesn’t is also essential. Choosing a hospital that ties up with many insurance agencies are better.

Consider the Doctor:

Your choice of a hospital should depend on the calibre of your physician or surgeon too. So you want to make sure that you find a good doctor. Check if the doctor is well-experienced or not. He has to be an expert if he’s a surgeon as only a well-practised surgeon can give you the assurance of getting cured of your disease.

All of these are the points determines what kind of hospital you should consider the best.