Hernia, commonly known as “hernia”, is a common disease in general surgery with high incidence, and the number of new hernia patients in China can reach 3-5 million every year. Because the majority of patients and friends do not know the disease well, or believe that “hernia” is a minor disease that does not need to be treated, or listen to some irregular medical advertising, accepting some irregular treatment, thus bringing inconvenience and trouble to work life. In this article, we would like to briefly introduce the general knowledge about hernia, and hope to help our patients and friends. 1.What is “hernia”? Everyone is talking about “hernia”, but what is a hernia may not be clear to many people. The word “hernia” comes from the ancient Greek word meaning a branch or bud, because at that time doctors were not aware of the disease and felt that it was like a branch growing out of a tree. As the understanding of the disease has improved, the correct definition of hernia is now: an organ or tissue in the body that leaves its normal anatomical site and enters another site through a congenital or acquired weakness is called a hernia. Therefore, there is no “gas” in a “hernia”, but rather an anatomical structure that is not supposed to be there, such as the small intestine, omentum, etc. Hernia can be divided into inguinal hernia, femoral hernia, white line hernia, incisional hernia, etc. Among them, inguinal hernia is the most common one, and we often say “hernia” also refers to inguinal hernia. 2. Why does a “hernia” occur? There are two main reasons why hernias occur: 1. Decreased strength of the abdominal wall: such as congenital weakness of the abdominal wall, old age, obesity, smoking and other causes of muscle atrophy; 2. Increased pressure in the abdominal cavity: such as constipation, difficulty in urination, chronic cough, ascites, etc. Therefore, think about this: the abdominal wall itself is weak in the elderly, if they are often constipated or coughing, the abdominal pressure will be high and the intestinal tube or omentum in the stomach will protrude along the weakest part of the human abdominal wall (inguinal region), resulting in a hernia. 3. How do I know if I have a “hernia”? Inguinal hernias are usually found in children and the elderly, with a significantly higher incidence in men than in women, which is related to the physiological characteristics of men, children and the elderly. A mass found in the inguinal region may be small and asymptomatic at first, increase in size if standing or walking for a long time, and disappear after lying flat. If you have the above symptoms, you probably have a “hernia” and should go to the hospital in time. 4. How to treat a hernia? Generally speaking, infants within one year of age can be treated without surgery and the hernia may disappear with growth and development; for elderly people with serious combined diseases that are inoperable, medical hernia belts can be used, but long-term use of hernia belts may cause adhesions and ingrowth. In addition to the above-mentioned groups, all other patients need timely surgical treatment. This treatment method involves injecting a sclerosing agent into the inguinal area to completely bond the muscles and fascia together to block the protrusion of the hernia. However, this treatment has a very high recurrence rate and can cause a variety of complications such as local intractable pain, foreign body sensation, testicular necrosis, etc. Moreover, if you receive this treatment, subsequent surgery will be very difficult if the treatment fails and the incidence of related complications is greatly increased. We often encounter many similar cases in outpatient clinics and wards, where patients are in pain and surgery is very difficult. Therefore, we should not make a big mistake to save money or to save the convenience of the moment! 5. Surgical treatment of “hernia”: open or minimally invasive (lumpectomy)? The surgical treatment of inguinal hernia has undergone a long process of development, from Bassini’s tension repair to the currently widely used tension-free hernia repair using biological patches. In simple terms, for children, a simple high ligation of the hernia sac can be used, while for adults, a patch is used for tension-free repair. Laparoscopic hernia repair (minimally invasive) is a new procedure developed in recent years, in which three small 0.5-1.0 cm incisions are made in the abdominal wall and the hernia is repaired through a laparoscopic posterior approach. It has the advantages of small trauma, short hospital stay, good cosmetic effect, fast recovery, chronic postoperative pain and recurrence rate, etc. It is now more and more widely used, especially the laparoscopic technique has great advantages for bilateral hernia and recurrent hernia. However, this procedure has the disadvantages of requiring general anesthesia and high cost. Both open hernia repair and lumpectomy repair are recognized as the best treatment means at home and abroad, and each has its own advantages and disadvantages. It cannot be said that open surgery is necessarily better than lumpectomy or lumpectomy is better than open surgery. 6.What do I need to pay attention to after the hernia surgery? If you undergo hernia surgery, you should pay attention to rest after surgery and not do heavy physical work for a short period of time. Elderly patients should pay attention to the prevention of constipation, difficulty in urination and chronic cough, which cause increased abdominal pressure. The discomfort such as local foreign body sensation may occur in the short term, but it will disappear slowly. I hope the above can provide you with reference and help.