Hernia Repair Oxford Circus

A hernia is a protrusion of an organ through the weakest part of the muscles or connective tissue of the abdominal wall. Hernias are provoked by a combination of factors – increased intra-abdominal pressure and the weakness of the abdominal wall muscles or fascia. Therefore, the main risk factors associated with hernias are obesity, pregnancy, chronic cough or constipation, connective tissue disorders, as well as older age, smoking, family history of hernia and physical exertion.

Laparoscopic cholecystectomy is the gold standard technique for treating gallbladder diseases in both acute and elective surgery, when gallbladder, a pear-shaped sac situated on the inferior surface of the liver, is removed. Anatomically gallbladder is divided into fundus, body and neck, which is linked to the bile ducts. Its main function is to store and collect bile which plays an important role in fat digestion and absorption, and serves as a means for excreting several important waste products from blood, such as bilirubin, an end product of hemoglobin destruction, and cholesterol excess. Gallbladder removal surgery is commonly performed when there is an inflammation present inside the gallbladder causing moderate to severe pain and directly affecting the quality of a patient’s life.

Gastric sleeve surgery, or a laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy, is a surgical procedure during which a part of the stomach is removed leaving the remaining part to function as a new smaller stomach. The stomach is an organ which functions as a temporary food reservoir and it also produces hormones, such as gastrin and ghrelin. Ghrelin is associated with the feeling of hunger. Therefore, the removal of a large portion of the pouch can favorably alter the hunger hormone production. After a gastric sleeve procedure a patient’s food intake is decreased and they feel full faster. It is a bariatric surgery, which helps patients to lose as much as 50 to 70 percent of their excess weight.

A gastric bypass is one of the techniques used in bariatric surgery and is done not only to kick-start  the weight loss process, but also to prevent or treat health problems that are associated with excess weight. Even though obesity has been prevalent for ages, only recently has it been recognised as a disease of multifactorial origin. The first attempts to treat obesity for the sole purpose of weight loss began in 1950s, when jejunoileal bypasses were done to induce a state of malabsorption (a condition when nutrient absorption is impaired). Despite reaching desired weight loss results, the procedure had too many post–operative complications to be deemed successful. The gastric bypass was developed years later, in the 1960s. The surgical technique went through numerous modifications in order to decrease the number of complications and is now one of the most frequently performed bariatric surgeries worldwide.