What Can Happen If You Let a Hernia Go Untreated?
INTRODUCTION
Although anyone is susceptible to a hernia, the elderly, smokers and the obese stand a much higher chance of developing one. Those persons who have already undergone surgery can also be more susceptible to hernias. As for why hernias develop, they may arise because of previous surgery, injury, disease, heavy lifting or pregnancy; in some cases, hernias are idiopathic (that is, no cause can be identified).
The condition can also be congenital—being born with a defect (e.g., a weakened abdominal wall) that ultimately makes a hernia easier to develop.
Since anyone can develop a hernia, it’s important to be properly educated about its symptoms. Although hernias aren’t lethal or likely to lead to serious harm, that doesn’t mean they should be underestimated. The scary reality is that some hernias can lead to serious injury; some of them can even lead to death.
It must be stressed that the hernias that turn out to inflict serious harm or lead to death do so because they were not treated properly or in a timely manner. In other words, if hernias are managed properly and, if necessary, surgically resolved, the prospects tend to be good.
While some hernias can be left alone without any major medical intervention, not treating a hernia can be a risky gamble. The bottom line is that not treating a hernia involves more potential risks and can lead to more serious harm than treating one—as the following facts will help illustrate.
WHAT CAN HAPPEN WHEN HERNIAS REMAIN UNTREATED?
Hernias are no different than other problems we experience in life—they tend to get worse or larger if not addressed adequately. Mild symptoms can turn into more serious ones, possibly spiraling into seriously underestimated complications.
If you suspect you have a hernia, at the very least let a doctor tell you whether it poses any significant danger in the short and in the long run. In most cases, it simply isn’t a good idea to just ignore a hernia.
Although it’s true that dietary changes, certain medications and exercise can ameliorate or reduce the severity of symptoms imparted by a hernia, most hernias can’t heal on their own. In fact, the most effective way to deal with a hernia is with the use of surgery.
In some cases, hernias cease from growing but they never get smaller. In some scary cases, hernias can grow so big as to overtake and over-fill the surrounding areas. If they overwhelm all the organs in the abdominal cavity, they can bring about an abdominal cavity’s total collapse.
If that happens, surgery can then become a moot point since restoring all the organs to their original places might then exert upward pressure on the diaphragm, thus possibly forcing the patient’s lungs to collapse.
At any rate, it’s better to get a hernia treated while it is relatively small than to wait until it grows to an unmanageable size. Smaller hernias are simply easier to repair and the recovery time from those types of surgeries can be much shorter.
It should also be noted that larger hernias tend to recur with more frequency than smaller ones—this is one of the many reasons to treat a hernia while it is still comparatively small.
Another important point to make is that, as hernias get bigger, they become more susceptible to incarceration and strangulation. The latter usually involves blood being stopped from flowing freely to the tissue, which can lead to infections, gangrene and necrosis. Such an event, in fact, can lead to parts of organs dying or rupturing—both of which will usually require emergency surgery.
Attempting to treat a strangulated hernia can be much more risky and complicated than treating a regular hernia; additionally, recovery can take much longer.
How do you know if you are suffering from a strangulated hernia? First of all, you will feel very sick and the symptoms you will be facing include:
--Constipation
--Fever
--Intense, worsening abdominal pain that may start suddenly
--Vomiting
--Nausea
--Visible bulge turning purple, red or darker
--Impeded flatulence
If you experience one or more of these symptoms and you have a hernia, seek immediate medical attention.
Of course, all hernias are not the same and the repercussions of not treating one type of hernia may be more serious and pronounced than not treating another type of hernia. Take hiatal hernias, for example. If not treated, a hiatal hernia can help induce stomach ulcers.
These, in turn, can make some patients literally vomit blood—this situation is, of course, a medical emergency. You should also be aware that the blood loss from the complications accompanying hernias is significant enough to inflict some patients with anemia.
If you get surgery early on in the process, though, you can prevent a whole array of nasty health complications. In fact, repairing a hernia is a long-term medical success proposition; furthermore, the risks involved in these types of surgeries are manageably low.
As such, surgery is considered by many experts as your best option, unless your doctor determines that surgery isn’t a good idea for your unique situation.
WHAT DANGERS DO YOU FACE BY NOT TREATING A HERNIA?
Some people assume that, just because they aren’t experiencing any significant or bothersome symptoms, the hernia they are suffering from must not be too big a problem. Such a presumptuous view may even lead these people to believe that maybe ignoring the hernia is the best option available.
Needless to say, these people may be making some dangerous assumptions that may later come back to bite them where the sun doesn’t shine.
Untreated hernias may not only keep increasing in size but may also become less easy to manage, more uncomfortable, more painful and, in worst case scenarios, life-threatening.
In the case of hiatal hernias, for example, one of the major problems that they help induce is the development of ulcers inside the esophagus. These ulcers come about because of the stomach acid that a hernia can help bring into the esophagus. If the ulcers get worse, they may start to bleed which, in turn, may provoke vomiting by the patient.
Naturally, if any blood is ever found in vomit, then this should be reason enough to pursue either intense medical inquiry or, what is probably a better idea, surgery.
Of course, the biggest danger of not treating a hernia is the potential development of an incarcerated hernia; an incarcerated hernia can, of course, then lead to a strangulated hernia. While both may require surgery, strangulation is the one that can easily lead to death—in other words, it is much more serious.
CONCLUSION
Simply put, leaving a hernia untreated is a dangerous gamble not worth taking. While surgery for other types of medical problems should only be used only if absolutely necessary, when it comes to hernias it is usually the best and safest option if your goal is to avoid serious complications and, more importantly, a possible premature death.
Copyright, 2018. Fred Fletcher. All rights reserved.
Resources & References
https://articles.mercola.com/hiatal-hernia.aspx
https://www.niddk.nih.gov/health-information/digestive-diseases/inguinal-hernia
www.nma-surgical.org/files/Annual_Scientific_Symposium_2011/Fullum...
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