Barton S. Wood, MD of Advanced Surgeons recently spoke to a gathering at the Greystone YMCA, where he discussed hernia surgery.

Wood told the audience that the two most common types of hernias that he sees are Inguinal hernias and Ventral hernias.

"An Inguinal hernia is essentially a groin hernia, occurring where the leg and belly meet," Wood said. "And a Ventral can occur anywhere between pubic bone and rib cage."

Wood went on to discuss the symptoms of hernias, along with treatment options.

Open hernia surgery, which involves a large incision, is a common surgical treatment. There are several drawbacks to this approach. The larger incision is more painful. It can be a fairly prolonged healing process. And because the mesh and sutures are exposed to the incision, if the incision becomes infected, it can track down into the tissue, causing the mesh to become chronically infected which may result in a second operation to remove it.

These problems can be alleviated by laparoscopic surgery. Because laparoscopic surgery is minimally invasive with three to four incisions about the size of the tip of a ballpoint pen, there is much less pain and a faster recovery. And because the mesh repair is done away from the incisions, the rate of infection is much lower. In fact, even if the incision becomes infected, the infection doesn't get into the mesh because the mesh repair is done away from the incisions.

Wood specializes in laparoscopic surgery.