I have moved this page about the David Lloyd Release Procedure (groin surgery) over to medium. You can find it here:
by Craig | Tuesday, July 28, 2015 | Misc | 23 comments
I have moved this page about the David Lloyd Release Procedure (groin surgery) over to medium. You can find it here:
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Thank you for these diary’s on your recovery. Very informative and helped gain confidence.
Craig- did you get better after your other pains?
I will answer you privately via email, Michelle. But for anyone else reading, it got better, but not back to normal.
Hi Craig,
I can’t seem to see your email.
Glad it got a bit better though?
Was it nerve damage?
Hi Michelle,
My email to you bounced for some reason. Yes, the problem I have now is nerve damage and I think that was there before the op. The op hasn’t completely resolved all symptoms, but it has stopped the most painful ones and now I just have a bit of oversensitivity. If I do weight-bearing cardio, that can take its toll on my groin and it will ache a lot, but I’d guess that’s consistent with any ligament tear – it’s never going to be as good as it was originally.
Thanks Craig for this.
I actually have just had the op with llyod so hoping for good results. I was worried with it being laparoscopic he may miss nerve issues. But glad you are feeling heaps better!
I hope the op went okay for you, Michelle. All I can say, is be careful when you stretch for things for a while. I wouldn’t worry too much about the nerve damage. As I said, my nerve damage existed before the op … I think it was the hernia or a testicle mishap that caused that in the first place.
Craig
I am a hernia surgeon but I do not perform any form of tendon release as I am not convinced there is any therapeutic benefit. The “Lloyd”!procedure you had done involves completely dividing your inguinal and lacuna ligaments. Unquestionably this will take tension off the muscle and aponeurotic fibres of the lower abdominal wall and therefore, at least theoretically will release tension and pain. Arguably a period of rest will allow the soft tissue injury to heal and eventually the patient could get back to normal activities without having to have any surgical intervention. The downside of doing a complete division of the inguinal ligament is that it leaves a big defect which would cause a hernia. That’s why Dr Lloyd places a large piece of mesh effectively giving you a mesh hernia repair.
My advice is that you go back to see Dr Lloyd if you have any post hernia repair groin pain so that he documents this as part of his long-term follow-up of this procedure
Hi Tom,
Thanks for the reply. Unfortunately, I have to disagree with you. I had a period of rest – nearly 12 months – and the groin pain never lessened at all. Physiotherapy actually made it much worse. It was only out of desperation that I went private and was referred to David Lloyd in the first place. The NHS surgeon that I saw prior to that said there was no hernia, but Mr Lloyd told me that he repaired a hernia and repaired my torn ligament during surgery. Nobody on the NHS came close to diagnosing a torn ligament.
I have been back to see Mr LLoyd since the operation for a couple of steroid injections to help with nerve damage. I still have some nerve pain that seems to culminate in my testicle, but doubt there is anything that can be done about it. If you think there is, I’m all ears!
Hi Craig
Thanks for writing this, and in such detail. I’m considering visiting Leicester for an appointment with Dr Lloyd but wanted to do some extensive research before shelling out £4.5K. I’m a keen runner but have suffered with debilitating groin pain for ten months now and have exhausted all avenues of the NHS. Would you recommend the treatment? I see you first wrote this piece in 2015, can you advise of how you’re feeling now, four years on?
Any insight into you experience would be hugely appreciated.
Many thanks
Alex
Alex
Go to a physiotherapist or a surgeon who is prepared to examine you in detail and determine whether you have adductor longus tendinopathy. This is by far and away the most common soft tissue injury in sports people. It is completely self limiting but the most important issues for you to understand are that you need to rest and avoid the exercise that precipitated the injury in the first place and that it can take up to 3 months to settle because it is very difficult for us to rest our pelvis. A short course of pelvic restabilisation physiotherapy exercises sometimes helps.
The limited literature and the extensive “blogs” on this subject are distorted by surgeons who treat elite athletes who are under pressure to get back to their sporting activities “immediately” rather than waiting for a short period to allow the injury to heal it self. Most of us are not highly paid elite athletes and even though I am a surgeon I advocate to avoid surgical intervention unless you really need it. Chronic groin pain after mesh repair is a real entity
Tom
Hi Tom – hope this reaches you. I have had adductor longus tendinopathy for around 3 years since I got injured. Would the Lloyd release not take the tension off the area and allow the tendinopathy to settle? Tried everything else. Cheers
Hi Alex, I read and reread all the information on the Lloyd Release because I’ve had it, and hasn’t helped. I’m desperate for answers. Desperate to get back to feeling me again. Its been along time since I have. 4 years of going round in circles. If I could go back I wouldn’t have it done. I wish I’d explored more options. Gilmores Groin surgery may have been one option… but I don’t know.
Yvonne I’m so happy for you that you are over your op . I have the same as you but I don’t know why it happened. I had spine surgery done last September and after 2 days I had this awful pain . Antibiotics drips . Hip check etc . 15 days in hosp dublin , then brought back 10 days later for 5 days on excruciating pain and no let down . Seen more doctors etc . 5 days later sent home and nothing done , shocking, so decided to see another doctor in a different place and knew straight away I had Lloyds ligaments torn . So march next month having it done . I have screws from L3 to S1 as all my disc removed . To me it came all of a sudden the pain two days later so my heart is telling me its after operation . So Yvonne what do you think ? Yvonne does it take a few months to heal . I had a enough already from doctors. Is that the spire bushey hospital in London you had it done . Take care Yvonne and please come back with you advice. Caroline Ireland
Caroline, Just to let you know, Yvonne’s comments were added a while ago. She said she found my post useful and wanted to put a woman’s perspective on it. So Yvonne might not see your message or reply to it – this is actually on my business site, I just posted it here to help people. Good luck with your op. Craig
I had a lloyd release in September 18. I did not see any improvement to my symptoms after initial recovery. I emailed Prof Lloyd 2 months after the op and he suggested I come and have a cortisone injection. I decided to wait for a few months as I understood that a steroid injection only reduced inflammation and hoped that this would happen naturally. I am now nine months into recovery and every time I try to get back into training I get pain in the ligament. I would say that the pain is a lot more than it was pre op. I have to add that I have never contacted Prof Lloyd to see what he suggested or if there was an alternative to the cortisone injection. I got the impression from him that this was the only post op treatment. It is very difficult to know who to go to for quality impartial advice in this situation. I have been told by a physio that the problem is not in the ligament but stems from imbalance in my lower back. Who knows.
I had similar problems, Will, although my pain was not worse. The post-op treatment isn’t good enough. The cortisone injections did help me, and I had to have two, and I also went to a chiropractor who really helped loosen up the groin area. The combination of both eventually got me to a point where I can go to the gym and train, but even now, some years later, I don’t fully trust the ligament to bear up under a lot of pressure. I notice it gets sore if I do any running, but cycling is ok.
hi ,I had the llyods procedure 12 days ago and I’m a keen runner like alex,after 2-3 days of feeling battered I did start to do some non resistant bike work and within 6 days felt comfortable enough to ride on the road s with out any pain whilst on the bike i ve done 20 miles every other day however the overall pain I had b4 the op still seems the same ,ive a consultation with prof llyod tues to hopefully put my mind at rest and just to tell me its to quick too soon
your advice on here has been great
many thanks
I have now had an MRI scan and it showed arthtitis and a cyst on my hip and also damage to my ileopsoas muscle and the attached tendon. The sports injury specialist ( GB Olympic team doctor) was shocked that I had a Lloyd Release done before any MRI had been carried out to determine other possible causes of the problem.
Did anyone else get a scan before having this procedure carried out?
I had scans before, but they didn’t show up anything.
I’m a professional brass player and had the Lloyd Release back in 2016 following lower abdominal and groin pain while blowing down the instrument. The results have been terrible – wish I’d never had it done.
Have been to see many other surgeons since trying to find a solution, who have told me that nerve damage was sustained during the Lloyd procedure. I have pain just sitting down, let alone trying to play my instrument! I have had to retrain the way I play but it’s not as it was before. I didn’t find the follow up care provided adequate, yet the “sales” part of the operation was very keen. Be careful if you are considering this. Many professional medics have told me it’s a vanity procedure created by the surgeon.
I’m not sure about the validity of the surgery. I know that if I had been left to the NHS, I’d have had no treatment beyond pain relief and I’d be hobbling around with a torn ligament still. But it does seem that several people suffer some form of nerve damage. I’d have to agree that the follow-up care is nowhere near good enough. Pro athletes don’t need it because they get it from their clubs, but the rest of us need it, for sure.
I’ve read a few comments on here and thought I’d add my own experience with the Lloyd release procedure.. I had the same symptoms as many of you have or had. Pain in the inguinal region that would not be helped with any amount of rest. I had the procedure about 8 years ago. Initially I thought it hadn’t worked, due to pain continuing after the operation for some weeks afterwards. I spoke to DR Lloyd who was very helpful and when I went to see him he gave me an injection in the site where the pain was. I have to say this wasn’t very pleasant, mainly due to to a needle going into the exact area of pain in an already tender groin.. but it completely solved the problem up until a few weeks ago when during lockdown I think I’ve got the same symptoms in a very similiar area again. Has to be said though i think it’s my own doing. Overall I would say my own experience with the Lloyd release procedure had a couple of hiccups but overall definitely a success for a long while.. and by the looks of things I may be there again soon..
Dear Craig,
I saw your forum and I think it would be in everyone’s best interest to highlight that the Lloyd Release Procedure I received 6 years has left me in a terrible position and still till this day I am suffering with constant pain and discomfort from the operation.
The diagnosis received was very poor with a ‘I don’t care attitude’ to it. I strongly believe what some others have said on this forum is correct. That is Dr Lloyd is a ‘salesman’ and is willing to take high risks with people health by cruelly exaggerating the patients symptoms of pain are coming from the groin area or the adductor area, when really the pain isn’t there at all. Dr Lloyd for example pressed his finger into my groin area and press down hard. he then said ‘I can see that hurts’ and from that he has made his decision to propose to do his ‘Lloyd release’ operation, just based of that evidence only. This is not only really disrespectful to the patients who have a genuine concern about their injuries/conditions, but also it is a criminal offence to be misleading. It seems that Dr Lloyd uses his profession to take advantage of patients, by abusing the doctor and patient relationship of trust.
so I can’t recommend the Lloyd Release Procedure to anyone. To anyone interested I have made a short video on youtube. This video explains what I have been through and how it has affected me since having the Lloyd Release procedure done.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCw1Qh-Ihse3ASPF6gExZNrA
any question please ask