Reading the choices for hernia meshes aloud is enough to make your lips pucker: Plug or patch? Polyester, polypropylene or PTFE? Proceed, Prolene, ProLite or UltraPro? You'll probably need to take a drink before going on to talk about coatings and other features. By some estimates, more than 120 hernia meshes are on the market. Picking the few types that you'll stock may come down to knowing what to say to surgeons who insist on a particular brand. Here's advice from the experts we consulted.