How can CHARGE Help Patients?

As the country’s first comprehensive multidisciplinary abdominal hernia program, CHARGE not only serves the city of Edmonton, but also serves patients from all of Northern Alberta and the Northwest Territories, western Saskatchewan, eastern British Columbia, and parts of Nunavut. We receive a large number of referrals for treatment based on our experience, outcomes and novel treatments for many types of hernias.

Our skilled surgeons offer open and minimally invasive surgical operations for hernia repair. For minimally-invasive or laparascopic surgery, several small incisions (the size of a dime) are made in the abdomen. Guided by a small camera, instruments are used to repair the hernia with mesh. These keyhole surgeries reduce pain, length of stay in hospital, and speed up recovery from surgery.

Some hernias, however, are so large or so challenging that they require specialized techniques to fix adequately. These include the use of muscle flaps for coverage of the abdomen, through a technique known as abdominal wall reconstruction. This technique involves rearranging the muscles and connective tissues of the patient’s own abdominal wall, applying mesh material, and reinforcing the abdominal muscles, restoring abdominal wall function, and preventing future hernias.

Our surgeons have extensive experience and utilize these latest techniques in performing abdominal wall reconstruction, including retrorectus repairs, transversus abdominis release, extended totally extraperitoneal repairs (eTEP). Our surgeons also study novel approaches and repair materials (biosynthetic mesh) that help advance the field of hernia surgery and benefit patients. The CHARGE program is emerging as a regional and national leader in advancing complex hernia care in Canada, through sharing best practices. Members of CHARGE are also executive directors of the Canadian Hernia Society, an authority on hernia care in Canada.

For complex hernia cases, we routinely collaborate with a multidisciplinary team of internists, plastic surgeons, wound and pain management specialists, weight loss physicians and surgeons to obtain the best outcomes for our patients.