​Football sized hernia removed after open surgery

Ahmedabad: Indravadan Joshi, a yoga practitioner did not need to swollow even a single pill in 75 years of his life. But on October 2, on his birthday he felt severe pain in his stomach and started vomiting profusely. He was rushed to the hospital where it was diagnosed that he had inguinal hernia and it had developed as big as a football in the span of four years.
Dr Bhavin Patel, an endoscopic surgeon who operated Indravadan Joshi, said, "I have been doing hernia surgery since the last 25 years, but I have never seen hernia developed as big as 30 inches or of a football size. In the cases when the operation is delayed for a long period, hernia grows as big as the size of an apple at the most. This was very different from what I have seen so far."
Joshi was cured after an open surgery that lasted for three hours. Dr Patel said, "Generally laparoscopy is the most preferred way to do hernia surgery, but this hernia was too big to remove with laparoscopy. We had no other way but to perform an open surgery to cure the patient."
The chief reason behind hernia is excessive abdominal exercise. The heavy exercise creates intra abdominal pressure which gradually tears up the inner layers of skin, especially in the bottom part of the abdomen and cause hernia. Joshi, who has been a yoga practitioner for a long, is one such victim.
Joshi said, "Being a yoga practitioner, I was free from any kind of illness so far. I noticed a tumor like swelling in the lower part of my abdomen since the last four years, but as it was not causing pain, I avoided going to see a doctor. But on my 75th birthday, the pain became unbearable and I had to rush to the doctor."
Ignoring inguinal hernia can sometimes be a danger to health. Dr Bhavin Patel of Parth Surgical Hospital said, "Swelling in the lower part of the abdomen is the obvious symptom of hernia. When it is neglected for a long time, it creates obstruction in the function of intestines and may also lead to intestinal gangrene." The problem of hernia is more likely to occur in men than women.