Hernia is a health condition that occurs in a major portion of the human population today. Almost sixty percent of human beings around us have been suffering from the disease.

In the human body, different tissues have different functions and in their place, the tissues, muscles and ligaments are required to perform at their optimum. However, occurrence of one or more soft points in the tissue creates a chance for growth of neighbouring organs or adipose tissues from neighbouring organs into the soft recesses.

In order to understand this disease completely, one needs to take a look at the main types of hernia seen around us and the main causes of hernia. We deal with both these aspects of the disease in the present article.

Watch Dr. Rajiv Khanna, Sr. Consultant Gastrointestinal, Minimal Access & Bariatric Surgery, Pushpawati Singhania Research Institute, New Delhi talk about Minimal Access Surgery/Pin Hole Surgeries. He talks about weakness in stomach leading to Hernia issues & its management through Minimal Access surgery.

Types of Hernia

Umbilical: This type of hernia may occur in newborns or ladies who have borne many children. Umbilical hernia is the passage of a part of the small intestine across the abdominal wall near the umbilicus. The condition can be painful and disruptive to the digestive system.
Incisional: This type of hernia is an outcome of a recently completed abdominal surgery in which there has been an incision that has been improperly closed. Tissues that were cut open failed to join back normally and therefore are to be considered weak openings for surrounding fat tissue, which leads to hernia.
Inguinal: Also known as groin hernia, this occurs most commonly in men who have a weak opening at the region of closure of the inguinal canal. Organ fat from surrounding areas enters through this opening and causes hernia.
Hiatal:Hiatus is an opening that occurs in the diaphragm of human beings which mainly performs the function of housing the oesophagus. The oesophagus passes through the hiatus and hiatal hernia occurs when the stomach shows upward growth and passes into the hiatus. Sometimes a part of the stomach may lie next to the oesophagus. The dangerous part of this condition is that the stomach may get strangulation with blood supply cut-off to more than half of the stomach.
Femoral: This is a unique hernia condition in which the intestine passes into the canal that is housing the femoral artery. This artery supplies blood to the upper thigh. This type is most commonly seen on obese women and those women who have borne many children.

Main Causes

Congenital defect: Defect at the time of birth leads to cause of umbilical hernia.
Surgical: Incisions which have closed incompletely internally can lead to hernia as there is an opening in the tissue or a damage or weakness that will allow passage of neighbouring fat.
Diarrhoea or constipation: Excessive diarrhoea or constipation can lead to drying up and damage of internal tissues, leading to weakness.
In addition to the above main causes other reasons that lead to hernia are persistent coughing or sneezing, poor nutrition, obesity, and smoking.