News

Wednesday, November 28, 2023
Boston Hernia - Wellesley, MA

We just published our second book chapter in Mastery of Surgery. This one took a long time to write and publish.  I spent days writing and revising last winter.  One of our pre-med medical assistants spent days going back and forth with me to create drawings of the repair to use for the chapter while all of our providers read through the manuscript to check for accuracy.  During my visit to Shouldice, I spent. day with Dr. Shouldice and Dr Bendavid. We discussed the anterior inguinal anatomy as well as the preperitoneal space. Dr. Bendavid dedicated his life to leaning inguinal anatomy and even translated Henri Fruchaud's book "The Surgical Anatomy of Hernias of the Groin" from French to English in 2006.  I enjoyed reading the copy he gave me! It was a life altering visit to spend time with great minds in hernia surgery. These surgeons understood the anatomy so well that they could fix almost any hernia without mesh.  It's a bit ironic that Fruchaud's book provided me with the foundation of why posterior mesh repairs make more sense than anterior repairs, thus the reason we perform about 80% open preperitoneal repairs and 20% Shouldice.

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/michael-reinhorn-md-mba-facs-9ab6092_herniasurgery-mesh-nomesh-activity-7134910973248729088-pb61?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop

Wednesday, November 8, 2023
Boston Hernia - Wellesley, MA

We just published our first book chapter in Surgical Clinics. We had the privilege of traveling to the Shouldice Hospital with the late Professor Jon Chilingerian in 2016.  We went to learn their model of excellence and fell in love with the technical aspects of their surgery.  We have taken all the lessons we learned to create the best quality and patient experience in ambulatory hernia care.  The Shouldice repair is an excellent option for patients who want to avoid mesh or are not candidates for a posterior mesh repair. https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7127987253808635905

 

Wednesday, October 25, 2023
Boston Hernia - Wellesley, MA

This morning, one of the outstanding residents of the Mass General Hospital Residency program presented our group data at the American College of Surgeons annual Clinical Congress.

Here is a summary of the presentation and pertinent findings

 

Wednesday August 2nd, 2023
Boston Hernia - Wellesley, MA

Boston Hernia has always been focused on improving the quality of hernia care. As active members of the Abdominal Core Health Quality Collaborative (ACHQC), a coalition of hernia surgeons committed to quality and value of care for patients with hernia or other abdominal wall diseases, Boston Hernia surgeons have dedicated time and effort to constant quality improvement. The ACHQC recently developed a Verified Surgeon program which distinguishes certain participating surgeons for their outstanding level of dedication to the organization’s mission. Both Boston Hernia surgeons, the only two surgeons recognized in New England, were included on this short list. 

Boston Hernia was founded on the belief that the quality of hernia care can and should be improved- that dangerous and life altering complications like the development of chronic pain (afflicting 5-15% of patients after hernia repair) should not occur. Through their efforts to better tailor surgeries to patients’ needs, dedication to patient education and awareness, and employment of surgical approaches with significant advantages in recovery and reduction of complication risks, Boston Hernia has set the bar for quality in hernia care. We are very proud to have our hard work recognized by the ACHQC and are most proud of how this work has led to better outcomes for our patients. Read more… 

 

 

Tuesday March, 14, 2023
Boston Hernia - Wellesley, MA

After years of collecting post-operative data in the ACHQC, the team at Boston Hernia finally published their research showing short- and long-term advantages of the open preperitoneal hernia repair compared to robotic and laparoscopic for inguinal hernia when performed in a high-volume center. The open preperitoneal (OPP) repair, performed by Drs. Fullington and Reinhorn about 750 times per year, virtually eliminates chronic postoperative inguinal pain, an all too common complication after traditional hernia surgery. When compared to laparoscopic and robotic hernia repairs, OPP results in lower opioid use and improved patient reported quality of life. The open preperitoneal repair is typically done under local anesthesia with sedation (avoiding general anesthesia), and without expensive laparoscopic or robotic equipment, which makes it more cost effective.

Our published paper in Journal Hernia is quite technical, but the data shows what we have known anecdotally for years: patients recover faster with less pain, less opioids, and lower complication rate when they have an open preperitoneal repair performed by a high volume hernia surgeon like Dr. Fullington or Dr. Reinhorn.

 

WELLESLEY, MASS. (PRWEB) NOVEMBER 16, 2021

This fall, the Abdominal Core Health Quality Collaborative (ACHQC) Opioid Reduction Task Force, headed by Dr. Michael Reinhorn, published its first manuscript related to the work that the task force has been doing for years trying to reduce opioid prescribing habits by hernia surgeons. The ACHQC was formed to have dedicated hernia surgeons work together to implement quality improvement projects related to hernia surgery. Thanks to the leadership of the ACHQC, Dr. Reinhorn was tasked with creating and leading the Opioid Reduction Task Force with the goal of improving postoperative pain management while decreasing patient opioid use.

Almost six years ago, the co-founders of Boston Hernia, Dr. Reinhorn and Lauren Ott, PA-C, examined their patients’ opioid use after hernia surgery. They then compared....Read more

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At the end of 2020, the Americas Hernia Society (AHS) elected Dr. Reinhorn to serve as an AHS representative to the Abdominal Core Health Quality Collaborative (ACHQC) board.  Dr. Reinhorn is joined by several surgeons throughout the United States who are committed to improving the quality of hernia surgery. Since 2018, Dr. Reinhorn has chaired the Opioid Reduction Task for of the ACHQC, and has led national efforts to reduce opioid prescribing after hernia surgery. By joining the board of the ACHQC, Dr. Reinhorn is able to further influence quality improvement initiatives across the country. The ACHQC was initially started as the Americas Hernia Society Quality Collaborative in 2013.  Since then over 450 surgeons throughout the country have voluntarily registered over 75,000 patients into the registry.

Information about the ACHQC  quoted from the ACHQC website 

“About the ACHQC: Through continuous quality improvement, real world data collection, rigorous analysis and collaborative learning, the ACHQC identifies areas where abdominal core health may be enhanced and shares this information in meaningful ways that have direct impact on patient care. The ACHQC is a CMS Qualified Clinical Data Registry and is an authoritative resource for organizations to assess quality metrics and demonstrate a commitment to efficient, value-based patient centered care. Participation in the ACHQC is free to surgeons and fulfills Part 4 of the American Board of Surgery Maintenance of Certification Program.”

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