Dr David O'Hara
Dr David O’Hara has been a Consultant in Anaesthesia at Broomfield Hospital since 2010. He qualified from University College London Medical School and completed specialist training in Anaesthesia at Barts and The London hospitals.
Dr O’Hara undertook advanced fellowships at the world-famous St Andrew’s Plastic Centre in Chelmsford and at Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children. He also worked for New Zealand’s Air Ambulance service.
His specialist interests include anaesthesia for laparoscopic ‘keyhole‘ surgery, upper GI surgery and plastic surgery. He has particular expertise in pre-operative assessment of surgical patients including cardiopulmonary exercise testing (CPET) and lectures nationally and internationally on this subject.
On a personal level, David enjoys cooking, scuba diving, and teaching.
Click here to download Dr David O’Hara professional CV (PDF)
UMBILICAL OR PARA-UMBILCAL HERNIA
An umbilical or para-umbilical hernia is a lump (usually small) in, above or below the belly button. Sometimes you can push the umbilical hernia back in but often not. It is usually a protrusion of fat (the bowel rarely is present in an umbilical hernia) and results from a weakness in the abdominal wall muscle sheath.
Repairing an umbilical hernia is generally straight forward and takes about 30 minutes.
Mr Lorenzi will make a small transverse incision above or below the umbilicus (belly button). The hernia sac is often quite small and can simply be pushed back in. If the defect is very small a mesh is not necessary and a couple of strong stitches will be sufficient. In the case of a larger hernia, a small piece of self-fixing mesh is inserted behind the muscles and the fascia sheath repaired over the mesh for a double layer repair. The wound is closed with a continuous running absorbable stitch under the skin. This dissolves over time and does not need to be taken out.
We offer very rarely and only in selected cases a laparoscopic repair for umbilical hernia. Mr Lorenzi will inform you directly if this is your case.
Patients can leave hospital soon after surgery.