Football Injury News Archive

Shearer's Hernia Surgery Explained

Monday 7th November 2005

Photo of Alan Shearer and Thierry Henry Newcastle United captain Alan Shearer has taken advantage of the break in Premiership matches, due to international games, and had surgery in Munich to cure a longstanding hernia problem.

United manager Graeme Souness confirmed “Alan had the operation on Monday and I'm hoping he'll be fit for a game in two weeks' time. The surgeon must do something different because she gets them back very quickly.'

PhysioRoom.com can reveal that the surgeon, Dr. Ulrike Muschaweck, does indeed have a different approach and her now tried and tested methods have benefited hundreds of German soccer players as well as elite athletes from North America, who normally manage to return to full fitness within two weeks. Not only is the surgical approach different, the whole concept of an in-patient surgical experience has been remodelled at the Bavarian centre known as ‘UM Hernienzentrum’.

The state of the art UM Hernienzentrum is located within the Arabella Sheraton Hotel in Munich and patients stay as guests of the hotel. During the actual procedure only a light anaesthetic is used and Dr Muschaweck has developed a new ‘Minimal Repair’, meaning that patients are usually well enough to leave the clinic the same day. Obviously with ‘out of town’ patients an overnight stay is usually required.

Dr Muschaweck has developed a surgical procedure from surgeon Dr. Edward Earle at the Shouldice Hospital in Toronto, Canada. This technique uses only a local anaesthetic and the entire clinic environment is structured in such a way that the patients come to the clinic in the morning and may already return home in the evening after surgery.

Dr Muschaweck has worked exclusively on hernia problems since 1993 and has successfully operated on over 12,000 patients. A principle of the UM Hernienzentrum is the concept of ‘Tailored surgery’, where the surgical method is carefully selected among several methods under consideration of the age, profession, general health and physical activity of the patient and the size and severity of the hernia.

Inguinal hernias occur due to a weakness of the abdominal muscles in the groin region. This leads to a widening of the Inguinal canal that is located in the groin region. This can lead to further muscle weakness and pressure on the Genitofemoral nerve, which can cause pain in the groin and testes.

Frequent symptoms of an Inguinal hernia are pain, especially after physical exertion, mostly combined with swelling in the groin region. Physical rest often only leads to short-term recovery, but after a short interval the complaints return; often worse than before. The use of warm pants can also help relieve symptoms and help the person suffering to keep getting by.

Despite its frequent occurrence, a hernia can only be safely diagnosed by an expert, who performs a special physical examination and uses Ultrasound scans to confirm the findings. Without the intervention of a specialist, weeks and months may pass before the right diagnosis is made.

The Minimal Repair technique that was developed by Dr Muschaweck is used on over 70\% of patients at UM Hernienzentrum. The technique does not use a synthetic mesh and is mainly designed for professional athletes. Since the surrounding tissues are undamaged and Dr Muschaweck only opens up the area of the defect without injuring intact areas. Due to this extremely sparing surgical technique the patient has less pain and can start strenuous physical exercise at two days after the operation.

According to Dr Muschaweck the main feature of the Shouldice technique is an elastic doubling of each abdominal layer. The smoothness of all the layers is therefore completely retained. As a result physical immobility is not necessary and the patient can start to work a few days after surgery. Another advantage with this method is the very small likelihood of a recurrent hernia.

By using a local anaesthesia the patient can reduce their hospital stay and get up and about quickly. They can eat immediately after the procedure and they won’t experience the side effects of general anaesthesia like sickness and vomiting, headaches and urinary retention.

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All medical information at PhysioRoom.com is provided by Chartered Physiotherapists, who specialise in sports medicine.