SURGEON Brian Stephenson's use of a pioneering hernia operation simplified treatment and recovery for more than 1,500 patients in Gwent over the past eight years.

The consultant, based at Newport's Royal Gwent Hospital, has also taught the 'plug and patch' technique he learned in the USA to more than 100 colleagues across the United Kingdom - and now he plans to pass on his expertise to surgeons in Africa.

Mr Stephenson aims to spend 10 days in Ghana in September working with three fellow hernia experts and a 10-strong nursing team, operating on around 100 patients with groin hernias.

"I'm on the board of the British Hernia Society and its president Andrew Kingsnorth, a surgeon in Plymouth, asked if I would go with him. An Austrian and an Italian surgeon will also be going," said Mr Stephenson.

"We do variations on modern hernia repairs which are quicker and easier on the patient. We'll work at the University Hospital in Accra, the capital, for a few days, also doing some lecturing, then go into the country to work at smaller sites."

Mr Stephenson is covering the trip with a combination of special leave granted by Gwent Healthcare Trust and some of his annual leave, and is looking for funding to pay for his trip.

Hernia repair in Ghana, a West African country, is done with traditional techniques requiring general anaesthetic, several days' stay in hospital, and two or three months' gradual recovery.

Plug and patch operations, however, can be done with local anaesthetic administered through a spinal epidural. Incisions are smaller and wound infection rates lower. Many patients can go home the same day, and although care and common sense is required, recovery time is quicker. Crucially, too, there is less chance of a hernia recurring.

"I've had maybe five returns out of 1,500 operations since 1997, which I'm pretty proud of," said Mr Stephenson, who spread the word in the UK about the plug and patch technique through workshops for surgeons.

"These techniques are pretty standard across the UK now. This is a chance to teach surgeons in another part of the world, to benefit them and their patients."