Post-Bariatric Hernias According to Dr. Loren Borud

When a patient undergoes bariatric, or weight loss, surgery, a complication may occur that may strain the patient’s body, resulting in a hernia. Dr. Loren Borud, one of the leading cosmetic surgeons known nationally and internationally, has written several publications about treating hernias after weight loss surgery.

A hernia is the protrusion of an organ or the muscle wall of an organ. Usually, this protrusion can be found through the cavity that biologically contains the said organ. Hernias happen when there is a weakness in a muscle wall of the organ, thus causing a hole or a defect in the wall. These “holes” may or may not be accompanied by pain and are categorized according to the location in which they are found.

According to Dr. Borud, the most common of hernias involved after weight loss surgery are abdominal ones. These occur after gastric bypass or bariatric surgeries and the bulges are found around the former incision, making the patient very uncomfortable. Therefore, they have to be surgically removed for improvement as hernias left alone may lead to multiple organ dysfunction, gangrene, and even death.

The most common way to treat a hernia is to reinforce the muscle with synthetic materials, a mesh prosthesis, while there are more specialized treatments that utilize instruments like the laparoscope. However, sometimes the mesh used can get infected, moved, or might be torn away from the native abdominal walls resulting in another hernia. Dr. Loren Borud describes the way he has treated several patients with hernias using a method he has adapted from the 1990s, that which involves the expansion of the native abdominal wall, which has three layers.

With a publication entitled Components Separation Combined with Abdominal Wall Plication for Repair of Large Abdominal Wall Hernias Following Bariatric Surgery and an international contribution in Israel’s Hernia Repair Following Massive Weight Loss, the reputation gained by Dr. Loren Borud is something truly deserved.