What is the procedure at the hernia center.berlin?

First, patients must present themselves in person at our practice in order to review the findings and determine the optimal therapy.

For this purpose, you can conveniently book an appointment online via our DOCTOLIB appointment calendar as a new patient for abdominal wall and inguinal hernias.

After the presentation in our hernia consultation with our specialists, an appointment for an outpatient or inpatient surgery will be made with the attending physicians.

Preparation

We perform outpatient surgeries in our practice on a weekly basis. Patients must have good mobility and no risk factors such as blood thinning medication or severe cardiopulmonary disease.

• Before the operation, we conduct a detailed consultation with the patient at a separate appointment, where all important questions can be discussed. We do not perform any operations without this discussion. For patients from Germany, it is absolutely necessary to be present in person.
• For patients under 60 years of age, we require a small blood count and the TPZ value, whereby the values must not be older than 3 months.
• After the operation, a trusted person must pick up the patients from the practice and the first night the patients must not be alone at home, so that help can be called in case of emergency. 

During the consultation, patients are given a surgical folder, which includes the anesthesia information sheet. This form must be filled out and brought to the surgery.

The anesthesiologists call the patients 1-2 days before the operation to clarify important details. Therefore, we need a working cell phone number.

Surgery

On the day of outpatient surgery, patients must be sober. This means that no meals or liquids may be taken up to 6 hours before anesthesia. An exception is non-carbonated water, which may be drunk up to 2 hours before a general anesthesia.

• Our office team will call all patient:s 1-2 days prior to the surgery date to let them know their attendance time at the office. Please be punctual and leave on time.
• After registration in our practice, we will accompany you to the recovery room, where you can change your clothes. Here an access is placed into the vein and another conversation with the anesthesiologist takes place.
• The anesthesia is performed with Propofol and usually results in a rather pleasant feeling and only very rarely in vomiting, dizziness or headaches. If you have ever had problems with anesthesia, be sure to tell the anesthesiologist before the anesthesia. Meanwhile, there are good means to prevent discomfort from anesthesia.
• After the operation, which lasts between 10 and 40 minutes, we will accompany you to the recovery room and you can rest in peace. During this time we will measure your breathing rate with a small device (pulse oximeter).

After about 1 hour, you will be fully conscious again and can leave the practice accompanied by a trusted person. You will receive prescriptions for pain medication and wound dressings, if necessary, as well as a certificate of incapacity for work. In case of emergency, you will always have an emergency phone number from the surgeons and the anesthesiologist.

Aftercare

The first follow-up appointment is the day after the operation in our practice. Here we change the first dressing and discuss wound care with you once again. Of course you can ask us all important questions.

• After the first dressing change, patients who have undergone hernia surgery can shower with shower plasters. Bathing or sauna please only after 14 days.
• Patients with open wounds after coccygeal fistulas or proctological operations must shower the open wounds with tap water 2-3 times a day after the first dressing change.

The second control appointment is after 4-5 days. If the wound looks good, no complications are to be expected, so that a final control takes place only after 8-12 weeks. If the patient does not have any complaints, it is not necessary.  

• Please take the prescribed painkillers for at least 3 days. It is important that pain does not occur in the first place.
• In the case of open wounds, a yellowish wound mucus forms. This is fibrin and not pus and is important for wound healing. 

In case of worsening of wounds or increasing pain, you can visit our practice after consultation from 09:00 to 17:00. After 17:00 and on weekends, please contact the nearest hospital.

We currently operate on inpatient hernias using minimally invasive techniques at the Schöneberg Clinic and the Havel Clinic. These operations include an overnight stay.

In these cases, too, patients must present themselves in person at our practice in order to review the findings and determine the optimal therapy procedure. For this purpose, you can conveniently book an appointment online via our DOCTOLIB appointment calendar as a new patient for abdominal wall and inguinal hernias.

After the presentation in our hernia consultation with our specialists, an appointment for the inpatient surgery is made with the attending physicians and a follow-up appointment for a surgical consultation is scheduled. 

Currently, all patients must undergo a Corona PCR test 48 hours prior to surgery. This is usually done at the appropriate hospital.

You are welcome to book an appointment online in our appointment calendar DOCTOLIB under the specialty "Visceral surgeon and proctologist" with our doctors. We are looking forward to it.