By Abdellatif Sharaa

KUWAIT: General Surgeon at Sabah Hospital Dr Mohammad Al-Slaimi said three successful complex and large hernia operations were conducted using the component separation method, adding the size of the hernia was more than 8 cm, which is considered highly complicated as the two main rectus abdominus muscles are far from each other.

He said any hernia of 8 cm or more makes it difficult for the muscles to be closed by regular surgeries, as bringing these muscles close to each other is difficult and requires complex surgery to separate organs of the abdominal wall - a posterior rectus sheath component separation with transversus abdominis release.

Dr Slaimi said one of the patients is a 55-year-old female who earlier had an umbilical hernia repaired. Then she suffered a repeated umbilical hernia of large size, so an operation to separate the organs of the abdominal wall was carried out. The second patient is also 55 years old, whose colon was removed earlier outside Kuwait and who had an 8-cm hernia, which was repaired. The third patient is 65 and had his adrenal gland removed outside Kuwait, which caused a 10-cm hernia, and he also underwent an organ separation procedure.

Dr Slami said the patients were examined two weeks later, then after a month, and everything was excellent. He said such operations are done outside Kuwait or by a visiting doctor, but "we have modern technological means at Sabah Hospital that enable us to carry out such operations". He thanked Health Minister Dr Ahmad Al-Awadhi and Undersecretary Dr Mustafa Redha for their efforts to provide the necessary support to health ministry hospitals.