Dr. Robert Bendavid: Women May Not Always be Candidates for Surgical Mesh for Hernias

Mesh Medical Device News Desk, April 9, 2013 ~ Dr. Robert Bendavid  is a well-known hernia surgeon who in this editorial for the Africa Middle East  Hernia Society discusses surgical mesh.

Past president and a founding father of the American Hernia Society, Dr. Bendavid has performed thousands of procedures and is presently associated with the Shouldice Hospital  in Toronto where the natural tissue, mesh-free, tension-free procedure was developed by Dr. Edward Earle Shouldice.

The same polypropylene mesh used in men and women for hernias is also used in women to treat pelvic organ prolapse and incontinence.  Dr. Bendavid tells MDND he was one of the early collaborators with C.R. Bard on the use of polypropylene mesh for the "Umbrella" and "Fletching", the first devices ever designed for treating difficult femoral and inguinofemoral hernias. Such devices, as the hundreds of subsequent ones, were never meant to be used on every patient.

Today he believes surgical mesh should only rarely be needed to be used on women for inguinal hernia repair, though it may be needed for femoral hernias.  He is about to publish his latest work on the connection between polypropylene and pain that would apply to all aspects of its use.  That information will be released  later this year.

Here is his editorial from the April newsletter:

Afro Africa Middle East Hernia Society