Surgeries can repair specific issues in your body while giving rise to other concerns. After a hernia mesh surgery, you may worry about common complications such as the mesh detaching and the hernia recurring. People will also monitor themselves closely for signs of infection near their incision after a surgery.
Another more subtle but seriously insidious risk is that of rejection. Any time you take something that originated outside of your body and place it in your body, there is the potential for your body to reject that tissue or material and mount a massive immune system attack as a result of its presence. This is one of many potential risks for those who have hernia mesh surgery.
Rejection is most commonly associated with organ or tissue transplants, as well as with artificial joints. However, even the small amount of mesh placed in your body to repair herniated tissue could also cause a rejection response that will likely necessitate the removal of the mesh material from your body.
Rejection could be a sign of improper care or treatment
Although rejection can happen in the body of anyone who has had any outside material (whether synthetic or organic) inserted into their body, minor issues with the way the surgery went could increase the risk of rejection.
If, for example, the mesh is not fully secured in place, that might make it more likely for it to trigger an immune response because it irritates nearby tissue by moving slightly when you move your body. Certain chemical compositions of mesh may also be riskier for different body chemistry makeups.
Beyond that, there is also the importance of your doctor potentially giving you immune-suppressing medication to avoid rejection immediately after the surgery and monitoring how you respond to the procedure. Sometimes, your body just needs a little time to heal around the surgical site.
Rejection will mean you have to remove the mesh
Once your immune system recognizes something in your body as a foreign object, it will not stop attacking that object. That massive immune system response can cause a host of unpleasant symptoms, including swelling, redness and pain. Many people also report the kind of symptoms they experience with a viral or bacterial infection, such as the common cold.
Fevers, loss of appetite, body aches or chills and many other symptoms may result from your body mounting an all-out immune system attack on something surgically implanted in your body. Needing to remove surgical mesh effectively means that the surgery failed, and you will still have to worry about repairing the hernia.
Patients who suffer failed hernia mesh surgeries may have to consider other options for repairing their hernia, as well as the potential for taking legal action against their doctor if incompetence or inadequate care contributed to the failure of the procedure.
