Morning peeps from a lovely and warm Monty (finally!). Has anyone experienced having a mesh inserted to deal with a stomach hernia in France? Phill is seeing a specialist this afternoon and the only question he is concerned about is “Is it done under a local anesthetic or do they knock ya out for the op?”
Cheers - Steve
I was given the option and took the GA, which, they allegedly prefer. In and out the same day.
Thanks Adam. I will pass this info on to Phill 
OH had it done under local and he says the most painful bit was the nerve block and after that zero pain. His surgeon preferred using a local, and chatted to him throughout. Perhaps why! Was in and out very quickly and healed well.
Generally you have to have an appointment with the anaesthesiologist first, and can discuss what you prefer then.
GA - I had the surgical equivalent of one of those plastic scrunched up washing up scrubbers inserted to plug mine, instead of a mesh, but I had still had a general anaesthetic - my wife has a very unbecoming picture of me waking up with a mad grin on my face!
PS: I was in and out in an afternoon.
I had two Inguinal Hernia mesh “keyhole” surgeries done in France without any problems, they were both done under a general but I was in and out the same day (op at 7.30am home by 3pm).
Great. Thanks for the info. Heading out to see the specialist now. Will report back accordingly
Morning all. The meeting with the specialist went extremely well. We were very impressed with her professionalism and clear explanation of what has and what will happen and the after care needed. Phill is booked for the surgery on 06 May, which will be done under a general anaesthetic - in and out in the same day. And, as circumstances would have it, this weekend we move to another holiday let for a month and it is 10 minutes walk away from where the surgery will take place On top of that we both have dental work coming up in the next month (after two years of not seeing a dentist) and me having my knee scan on 23 April (after getting back from South Africa last Feb, I missed a step as I was getting off the TVG with the heavy bag and crashed down onto the platfrom using my right knee as a cushion). Such fun! Cheers - Steve & Phill
Funnily enough have just spent the afternoon doing four inguinal hernia daycare mesh repairs to pay for 10% of a new pool liner.
You have three options usually. General, Spinal or local anaesthetic The first is probably the most used followed by the second and local anaesthetic infiltration was widely used in the 80s, the days of the darn but less so now we tend to poke things like plugs on double meshes in to the inside of the abdomen
LA is good for anaesthetising the skin and muscles but harder to get at the lining of the abdomen the peritoneum. If you are just putting a mesh over the inner muscle layer that is fine. If you are inserting a plug through in to the abdomen then the peritoneum has a visceral nerve supply that when stimulated will give rise to some possible sickening sensation. Plugs were widespread in the UK until the last couple of years when they have given way to “sticky” velcro like meshes but I am not sure what the trends are in France.
Laparoscopic or keyhole procedures involves inflating the abdomen with CO2 which is not particularly pleasant unless performed under GA. It also has not gained the degree of ubiquity that it has for gall bladder surgery (98%) with only about 1 in 5 currently being done that way in the UK.
Patients frequently worry about the adverse publicity and Panorama issues surrounding meshes but that applied to pelvic continence procedures in ladies using old hard meshes and nobody uses those any more.
Any other queries don’t hesitate to DM me.
Hi DP. Thank you for that very in-depth and informative description. Phill’s procedure is for an umbilical hernia, not in the “ladies department” 
Bizarrely, the best info I have read for the procedure is from NHS Bath’s brochure which I downloaded from their website. The specialist said that she needed the area to be completely relaxed, hence the GA.
Cheers – S&P