Inguinal hernia, also known as “small intestine hernia”, is a more common disease among the elderly. According to conservative estimates, there are more than 20 million patients in China, with an overall incidence of about 1‰-4‰, and the incidence rate is as high as 1.2% above the age of 60 and up to 4% above the age of 80. However, many elderly people lack proper understanding and attention to this disease, and there are many misunderstandings, which lead to the development of a small disease and even life-threatening. The causes of hernia are weakness of the abdominal wall and increased abdominal pressure. The atrophy of the abdominal wall muscles in the elderly is a natural factor causing weakness of the abdominal wall, while there are factors that increase abdominal pressure in the elderly, such as chronic cough, constipation, difficulty in urination, relatively heavy work and weight bearing. When the outer tire of the car is partially broken or weak, the pressure inside the tire increases and the inner tire (small intestine or omentum, etc.) will protrude outward from there, forming an extra-abdominal hernia. Common symptoms of hernia in the elderly 1. Due to the special onset site of hernia, some elderly people have difficulty in expressing themselves, and the delay in diagnosis and treatment makes elderly patients suffer, which eventually causes double damage to the body and mind of the elderly. In addition to abdominal mass and local pain, hernia can also cause digestive symptoms such as lower abdominal cramps, abdominal flatulence, abdominal pain, constipation, poor nutrient absorption, easy fatigue and decreased physical fitness. Secondly, hernia can cause symptoms of bladder or prostate diseases such as frequent urination, urgent urination and increased nocturia in the elderly. 3. At the early stage of the disease, the swelling appears when standing and walking or intra-abdominal pressure, and the swelling can be returned into the abdomen when lying down by itself or after pushing by hand. If the hernia cannot be controlled and treated in time, repeated herniation out and return over time will cause damage to the hernia contents and the internal opening of the hernia, and once the hernia contents are difficult to be returned, it will develop into an incarcerated hernia with symptoms such as vomiting, abdominal distention and bowel obstruction, etc. If the incarcerated time is too long, it will lead to ischemia and necrosis of the hernia contents to form a strangulated hernia, which will raise a small disease and even develop dangerous conditions such as intestinal necrosis and endanger This can lead to life-threatening conditions such as intestinal necrosis. Many people think that hernia symptoms are mild and many patients can feel the mass during the day and it disappears when lying down, so no treatment is needed. In fact, inguinal hernia, regardless of its size, has the possibility of protruding viscera and tissues getting stuck in the “gap” (inner ring) and developing into an incarcerated hernia and then forming a strangulated hernia, making it a minor disease with big medical expenses and pain. 2. Small hernia does not need to be treated “My hernia is very small, I don’t need surgery yet, let’s wait for it to grow up.” Many patients have a kind of disbelief or fear of small hernias. However, the objective fact is that inguinal hernia will not heal on its own and will gradually increase in size. On the one hand, if the hernia is too large, the surgical trauma will increase and the risk of surgery will increase with age; on the other hand, both large and small hernias have the possibility of developing into incarcerated hernia and strangulated hernia, and the more the inguinal hernia is not treated in time, the more the possibility of incarcerated and strangulated hernia will increase. 3. Hernia braces and hernia bags can treat hernias Many elderly patients especially like to wear hernia braces and hernia belts. Hernia brace, hernia belt does not treat and repair the weakness of the abdominal wall, nor does it prevent the protrusion from “breaking out”. Instead they promote even more compressive atrophy of local tissues, causing local tissue adhesions and making surgery more difficult. The abdominal wall muscles of middle-aged and elderly people not only do not have the ability to “overhaul” themselves, but they also continue to age and become more fragile as they age, so this method is not effective for them. If you are suffering from hernia, you should seek timely medical treatment, choose a regular medical institution, undergo professional examination and treatment, and adopt standardized surgery in order to truly treat the disease at its root. At present, tension-free hernia repair is mostly used, which is less painful during and after surgery and has a low recurrence rate after surgery. At the same time, its operation is simple and requires low physical condition of patients, and the operation can be completed under lumbar anesthesia (double-block anesthesia) or even local anesthesia, and generally only 2-5 days of hospitalization are needed, and normal life can be resumed soon after surgery. Our department performs about 200 hernia repair surgeries every year, and we develop individualized treatment plans for different patients according to their own characteristics, using the flat tension-free repair method, small-incision mesh placement hernia repair and laparoscopic inguinal hernia repair, with precise surgical efficacy.