If I have to have surgery, when is the best time to do it? Is it better to operate when it is found or can it wait? Do I have to have surgery right away if I have an incisional hernia? Can it be delayed? As a specialist in hernia and abdominal wall surgery, we recommend that once an incisional hernia is diagnosed, the sooner the patient is operated on, the better. Of course, this is only if there are no other medical conditions that preclude surgery. If you have just had an angina or heart attack and your condition has not stabilized, you can wear a lap band temporarily and wait until your condition stabilizes before having surgery. Why are patients not advised to wait? An incisional hernia is actually an organ that has been drilled out of the abdominal cavity through a “hole” in the abdominal wall, and when the number of organs drilled out is relatively small and the bag is relatively small, the surgery is relatively easier to handle. If the bag gets bigger and bigger, or even if intestinal adhesions and intestinal obstruction occur, then surgery will be much more complicated, and the risk of surgery will increase, and the patient will recover more slowly after surgery, and the possibility of complications will be greater. Therefore, it is still recommended that patients should be detected and treated early, not only for incisional hernia but also for other hernia such as umbilical hernia, white line hernia, inguinal hernia, and pediatric hernia. Patients are worried that the incision will not grow easily in the hot weather in summer, so can we wait until the weather is cooler before operating? This is not really necessary. The weather is no longer an important factor affecting the recovery from surgery, and we live in an environment where there is air conditioning both at home and in the hospital. In addition, most incisional hernia surgeries are performed in a minimally invasive laparoscopic way, where an eye is made in the stomach without a large incision; some medical glue and other items are used to protect the wound after surgery, so there is no need to worry about wound healing. If you have the mentality of waiting for surgery, you may have a dangerous situation while waiting for surgery, such as a stuck incisional hernia, resulting in intestinal necrosis, which will require emergency surgery. If I am too fat, do I have to lose weight before I can have an incisional hernia surgery? But I am afraid to exercise even if I have an incisional hernia, what should I do? Obesity itself is an important factor that causes incisional hernia, and there are more complications after incisional hernia surgery in obese patients, so many patients want to lose weight first and then have surgery. However, there are degrees of fatness, and it is up to the specialist to decide whether surgery should be done now and whether weight loss should be done before surgery. Moreover, for many older people, losing weight is not an easy task. Many people lose weight through heavy exercise and dieting, but strenuous exercise is not recommended for patients with incisional hernia. Nowadays, medical technology is becoming more and more advanced, and weight loss surgery and incisional hernia surgery can be done together. We just had a case of such surgery in our hospital not long ago. What symptoms do patients have that require immediate hospitalization? Patients with incisional hernia may have no obvious symptoms in the early stage, just a bulge that is not painful or itchy. As time progresses, this pouch will get larger and larger. Patients are reminded that they need to go to the hospital immediately if the following symptoms appear: 1. pain: the bag is getting bigger and bigger, the bulge cannot be returned, and it is getting more and more painful; 2. symptoms of intestinal obstruction: such as nausea and vomiting after eating, no exhaustion or defecation, and the stomach is distended like a ball, which means that there is an acute complete intestinal obstruction, and the condition is very dangerous, so go to the hospital immediately.