[MUSIC PLAYING] - Parastomal hernia repairs is not something that's routinely done in the local community, and these patients are very challenging for a number of reasons because they've had prior surgeries or other issues that have related to their stoma.
We have a vast experience seeing these patients and operating on 'em. Where most institutions maybe do just a handful of robotic parastomal hernia repairs, just in the last two years, we've done over 100.
- Those techniques are perfected by the more you do.
Not only are we good at the surgical technique with these parastomal hernia repairs, but we have a large ostomy team here of 17 nurses that are dedicated just to caring for ostomy patients, and that makes a huge difference.
Most places don't have ostomy nurses, or maybe they have a wound ostomy care nurse, but they deal more with wounds than ostomies so they're not familiar with all the products.
They don't have the inventory like we do here because we are a larger medical facility.
It's way more than just, you know, finding the right pouching system.
Having an ostomy can really, truly affect your life.
We see thousands of patients a year, so maybe a patient has given us a tip that we can share with another patient.
- Our wound ostomy and continence nurse team is probably one of the best in the world.
One of the goals of our team is to make sure you're able to live your fullest life, and if hernia repair is appropriate and needed, then we can offer that as an option.
The robotic approach to parasoma hernias has transformed the practice for me.
One of the advantages of a robotic parastomal hernia repair is that it certainly translates into better clinical outcomes for the patient with lower morbidity, decreased length of stay in hospital, and fewer types of serious complications.
And then combining that with a Sugarbaker approach has been considered the gold standard for the lowest level of recurrence.
And what this does is it places a large sheet of mesh inside the abdomen to prevent any type of defect that would allow another hernia to form.
In our recent review of our own experience of robotic parasoma hernia repairs, our rate is less than 10% of recurrences within two years.
- With the robotic parastomal hernia repair, they're not in the hospital as long.
Oftentimes they're out and headed back home within a couple of days.
I think we're a great resource for referring providers.
Sometimes things are beyond what they've tried to do or can do, and so I want them to know that not only is it the surgical side, but the ostomy side as well, because that can make a huge difference for patients.
- It's not infrequent that I'll encounter a patient who is referred for evaluation of a parastomal hernia repair, and then the question comes up, do you need to have the stoma at all?
Because of their illness or other factors, the surgeons closer to home feel uncomfortable reversing the stoma, and in many cases, we can reverse the stoma and repair the hernia.
- It's about the whole person.
So, whatever they're dealing with, we wanna help them with that so that they can improve their quality of life and go live it. (gentle music)