I am 32. I was diagnosed with double hernia in April. I had my right side operated in May. It turned out
that I had two other ruptures inside besides the main hernia which was also incarcerated. They repaired them all. My recovery is very slow.

My left side is to be operated in late September. Can other ruptures be diagnosed in advance and is it wise to have them repaired all with one operation?

I am physically very active. My father had hernia and they say my abdomen walls are not strong enough by birth. Is there something I can do (like special exercises) in order to make my walls stronger so as to avoid recurrence or other ruptures in the future. I also read that smoking contributes to biochemical weakening of the walls. Is it true (I am a smoker)? If they can be weakened biochemically so I assume they may also be strenghtened biochemically. What can I do in this respect?

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Dr. Joshua’s Answer:

I haven’t heard of preventive hernia surgery. Generally, this type of surgery is not performed “in case”, but only when there is clearly something that needs to be fixed. I’m not an expert on the subject though, and if you have a strong predisposition due to congenital (from birth) weakness of the abdominal wall, you might make an exception. You should discuss this with your surgeon. Smoking is, or course, generally very bad for you and while I don’t know if there is evidence that smoking will further weaken your abdominal wall, it most certainly won’t make it stronger either!?