Dr. Reinhorn started his career as a general surgeon doing all different kinds of abdominal surgeries including colon, gallbladder, appendix, and hernia surgery. Early in his career, he observed that the specific procedures he performed the most of felt easier, and patients often had less complications. He chose to focus on inguinal hernia surgery because he met so many patients who had poor outcomes after inguinal hernia surgery. Dr. Reinhorn stopped using the mesh plug in 2002, when he became a high volume laparoscopic inguinal hernia surgeon. He then advanced to the fast recovery inguinal hernia repair technique in 2004, long before data showed that posterior mesh placement and local anesthesia are superior to other ways of fixing hernias. Dr. Reinhorn’s practice is now almost exclusively dedicated to inguinal hernia and umbilical hernia. Over his career Dr. Reinhorn has repaired over 4,000 hernias.
Dr. Fullington is an experienced laparoscopic surgeon having performed over 1,000 laparoscopic repairs when recruited to Boston Hernia where she was carefully and thoroughly trained on open techniques to ensure consistent quality repairs for all of our patients. She has performed over 1,000 hernia repairs since joining Boston Hernia in May 2021.
Together, Dr. Reinhorn and Dr. Fullington repair around 1,000 hernias per year. Our practice is dedicated almost exclusively to taking care of patients with inguinal hernia, umbilical hernia, epigastric hernia. This sub-specialization allows for expertise in treatment of these conditions, including unique surgical procedures with better outcomes.
About Dr. Reinhorn & Dr. Fullington
Dr. Michael Reinhorn is a specialist in inguinal hernia and umbilical hernia. He started his practice as a general surgeon in 2001, and in 2012 he transitioned to focus on the care of hernia patients. In 2018, he co-founded Boston Hernia, an ambulatory surgery practice focused exclusively on hernia surgery. In 2020, Dr. Nora Fullington was recruited from her work as a general surgeon, where she performed hundreds of laparoscopic hernia repairs, to Boston Hernia where she was intensively trained by Dr. Reinhorn in the open preperitoneal and Shouldice techniques. Together with their physician assistant team, they perform approximately 800 hernia surgeries every year. Both surgeons offer a tailored approach for each patient, taking into account individual patient factors to decide if surgery is recommended or not, what type of repair (open, laparoscopic, mesh, non-mesh) is best, and what type of anesthesia is safest. At Boston Hernia, our focus is on each individual patient and continuously improving our own surgical techniques and outcomes. We do this by participating in various hernia societies, studying our own outcomes through a national database, and publishing our data to influence the care of hernia patients nationally and internationally. Boston Hernia is an affiliate practice of the Mass General Brigham system. In addition to operating at Newton-Wellesley Hospital, a Mass General Brigham Hospital, we offer care at ambulatory surgery centers in Waltham, MA and Derry, NH.