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I was in Taiwan recently when I met some surgeons who have been working on hernias for half their lifetime. They had been thinking about it, the ways to improve, the approach to take, the tailoring of the  procedures. Yes, nothing is perfect, my readers. Everything in science is transient since it is dynamic, in evolution and always progressive. What is true today may not be true tomorrow. And that is why science is not perfect but an effort towards it.

It reminds me of Edison the man who invented the electric bulb.

In the search of a filament that could light up, he spent hours and days in the laboratory and failed 6000 times before he got it right. And it's not that when the light was created that science stopped evolving. It progressed from there. It took off to newer heights. Look around yourself and see those neon lights, the LED screens, the cell screen and you would know what i am talking about.

In this regard, science is like a giant wheel where everybody is contributing like a cog. Although the cog individually may be unimportant but, each one has to perform for the wheel to move.

Coming back to hernia surgery, there is  so much hap-pening there. When a surgeon has to cut open an abdomen (fortunately rare in this world with advancement in keyhole surgery), there is always a risk of an incisional hernia. Something to the tune of 20%. Thats not less! Efforts are being made to prevent these hernias. Once hernias form, the first attempt to repair is the best opportunity. And that  is being refined by surgeons around the world. We now know that one surgery cannot fit all. It has to be tailored. Diabetes, obesity, smoking, hernia size and location matter. And newer methods are getting evolved to address this so called complex hernias.

The exchange of ideas across the globe has suddenly become rapid with the advent of the internet and this has led to spurt in progressive thinking. And this is a good change since earlier, the only way to know somebody’s idea was when it got presented in international conference or got published in a reputable journal.

I foresee a lot of development in the science of hernia for many reasons. Apart form globalisation the other reason is that I see a lot of Edisons in the field who have focus and concentration. It is likely that we may not need 6000 failures anymore before creating something wonderful in hernia repair.