Hernias? Surgery complications

What are some possible complications with surgery? I've read that hernias are a common complication? How do hernias happen? Can someone tell me more about what this means in recovery time, and um not to sound stupid but what is a hernia?

A hernia is the protrusion of an organ or tissue through an opening in its surrounding walls, especially in the abdominal region.  This is not a complication of surgery.  This is something that you already have that is sometimes found when the surgery is being done, and is usually fixed at the time of the surgery.

Jane

Claimmaster (hey...we had surgery on the same day!) is right. Hernia is not a complication of VSG. Many of us have hernias that we already had repaired during the surgery though. The bypass does have the potential complication of a hernia, where the intestines get twisted and part sneaks through a loop where it isn't supposed to go.

The biggest complications that worry people are a leak and a pulmonary embolism. Of course, infection is always a possibility too. Those are the biggies (with actually quite small rates of occurrence).

Oh, it this common? Because I've read several people say they had hernias. How do you know if you have one?

You can get hernias in different places on your body. The hernias fixed during surgery are hiatal hernias. The hernias people can get after surgery are incisional hernias. I do not know a lot about them, so I'm afraid I can't tell you much more.

Small hiatal hernias often have no symptoms and don't need to be repaired.  Large ones can cause heartburn, burping, pain, and difficulty swallowing.  They happen when the opening you already have in your diaphragm for the esophagus to pass through becomes enlarged. This can be caused by injuries, genetics, and pressure on the stomach. They are more common among the obese because abdominal fat pushes the stomach up towards the diaphragm.  Surgery won't cause a hiatal hernia, but as a previous poster mentioned, you can get incisional hernias.  I got one of those in my knee after arthroscopy.  It happened because I popped a stitch when I decided to walk without my crutches less than 24 hours after surgery, and it was small enough that it healed on its own with no additional surgery.

They found my hiatal hernia during the endoscopy and will fix it during surgery.....sounded like they do it often enough that it's no biggie.