Friday, 24 october 2025
8:30 – 9:00
Registration
9:00 – 10:30
Deferred Life Surgery
part I
Walter Brunner
Saskia Urbani
Repair of large M1 hernia with subdiaphragmatic dissection
Jonathan Douissard (Switzerland)
Inguinal mesh removal
Vedra Augenstein (USA)
Parastomal hernia repair / EACS
Gernot Köhler (Austria)
11:00 – 12:30
Deferred Life Surgery
part II
Todd Heniford
Jan Kukleta
Robotic flank hernia repair
Björn Mück (Germany)
TAR
Yuri Novitsky (USA)
Ventral TAPP
Sandra Widjaja Kaufmann (Switzerland)
13:00 – 13:30
Lunch Symposium — Redefining Access in Hernia Surgery
From Robotic Ventral Hernia Repair to Outpatient Inguinal Hernia with the DEXTER®
Natalie Kuchen from Hirslanden Zürich OK
Michaela Ehrler from Viscera Bern
Fabrice Tinguely from Distalmotion
Philippe Hecht from Distalmotion
13:30 – 14:30
Session 7 – Clinical decision making
Anders Olsson
Vedra Augenstein
Limits of robotic approach in AWR
Yuri Novitsky (USA)
Management of chronic postoperative inguinal pain (CPIP)
Debora Nowakowski (Switzerland)
When all bridges are burned: bail out procedures in AWR
Todd Heniford (USA)
14:30 – 15:00
Industry Symposium
Complex, Stress and Sleepless Nights – Hernias That Haunt Us
Para-urostomy hernias: are we getting closer to a (good) solution — Jonathan Douissard (Switzerland)
When the Mesh Hits the Wall Dealing with Abdominal Disasters — Gernot Köhler (Austria)
15:45 – 16:45
Championsleague
Philipp Kirchhoff
Team Switzerland: Dietmar Eucker, Sandra Widjaja Kaufmann
Team Europe: Knut Borch, Frederik Helgstrand
Team Asia-America: Davide Lomanto, Vedra Augenstein
Case 1 — Iliana Geogloman (UK)
Case 2 — Saskia Urbani (Germany)
Case 3 — Johanna Willburger (Switzerland)
16:45 – 17:15
Best Video Award 2025
Moderation & Jury:
Knut Borch
Marc-Olivier Sauvain
The SWISS HERNIA DAYS are known for a unique and innovative congress concept. Therefore, in 2026 we will provide the 6TH SWISS HERNIA DAYS ANATOMICAL WORKSHOP. The Anatomical Workshop will take place prior to the main congress at the 21TH October 2026 at the Anatomical Institute of the University Basel and focusses on extraperitoneal minimally invasive techniques in ventral hernia repair.
Registration to the Anatomical Workshop is only possible together with a congress registration and limited to 28 participants.
Program
Silver Sponsor 2026
Contributors 2025
Registration
Information on the registration process will follow soon!
Salzburg Hernia Days
Zum zweiten Mal finden am 21. – 22. März die Österreichischen Hernientage in Salzburg statt. Anknüpfend an die bewährten und erfolgreichen Salzburger Hernientage möchte dieses Format nun die Österreichische Gesellschaft für Hernien-Chirurgie weiterentwickeln und als DEN Kongress für Hernien-Chirurgie in Österreich etablieren.
Es erwartet Sie ein spannendes Programm mit den beiden Hauptthemen:
— ezidivhernienchirurgie – eine Domäne für Experten!
— Prävention – das Schlagwort der Zukunft!
Endorsed by EHS
The Swiss Hernia Days are endorsed by the European Hernia Society, a non-profit making international scientific forum that focuses on ABDOMINAL WALL SURGERY.
8:30 – 08:45
Registration
8:45 – 9:00
Welcome and Introduction
Philipp Kirchhoff and Henry Hoffmann
9:00 – 9:20
Anatomy of the groin
Jan Kukleta (Switzerland)
9:20 – 9:40
Lichtenstein and Shouldice technique
David Chen (USA)
9:40 – 10:00
Inguinal TEP and TAPP
Jonathan Douissard (Switzerland)
10:00 – 10:30
Coffee Break
10:30 – 10:50
eTEP ventral hernia
Fernando Ferreira (Portugal)
10:50 – 11:10
Ventral open retromuscular and preperitoneal techniques
Walter Brunner (Switzerland)
11:10 – 11:30
Transversus abdominis release (TAR)
Dietmar Eucker (Switzerland)
11:30 – 12:30
Lunch Break
12:30 — 17:00
Practical exercises on cadavers with table instruction by the experts
- 12:30 – 14:00 Lichtenstein
- 14:00 – 15:30 ventral eTEP
- 15:30 – 17:00 TAR
- 17:00 – 17:30 Abdominal wall closure with small bites technique
STD
Thursday, 24th October 2024
8:00 — 08:30
Registration
8:45 – 9:45
Session 1 — Swiss Young Surgeons Session
Johanna Willburger
Hellen Birsner
Pitfalls in Lichtenstein and Shouldice
Rebecca Kraus (Switzerland)
Teaching in TAPP / TEP
David Lourie (USA)
Teaching open sublay and TAR
Sean Orenstein (USA)
9:45 – 10:45
Session 2 — Hernia surgery of the future
Andrea Pakula
Guillaume Passot
Role of robots in future hernia surgery
Ihsan Ihnan (Switzerland)
Which techniques are here to stay, which will die
Maarten Simons (Netherlands)
Outpatient hernia surgery in private practice: present & future
Martin Wiese (Germany)
10:45 – 11:15
Coffee Break
11:15 – 12:15
Session 3 — Important UpDates
Best three hernia papers in 2024: my choice
Nadia Henriksen (Denmark)
Real World Data from registries
Ferdinand Köckerling (Germany)
Guidelines in a nutshell
Cesare Stabilini (Italy)
12:15 – 12:45
Lunch Break
12:45 – 13:30
Get ready for the Hernia transformation
Lunch Symposium — BD
13:30 – 14:30
Session 4 — Grand Round
Hernia prevention and prehabilitation
Henry Hoffmann
Philipp Kirchhoff
Rebecca Kraus, Marteen Simons, Bernhard Dauser (Podium)
Input Talk: Reality check on hernia prevention and perioperative optimizing strategies
Rene Fortelny (Austria)
14:30 – 15:00
Industry Symposium — TelaBio
PSH: Is it time to leave Sugarbaker & Synthetics and move to (modified) Pauli & Ovitex?
Bob Bloemendaal (Netherlands)
Next level RTM TAPP —can we do better?
Thomas Mones (Germany)
15:30– 16:30
Session 5 — UpDate on MIS Ventral Hernia Repair
I still love my lap IPOM
Walter Brunner (Switzerland)
eTEP – nothing else
Hector Valenzuela (Mexico)
MILOS: Experiment or established?
Ralf Wilke (Germany)