Scientific Programme 2025
Thursday, 23 October 2025
8:30 – 9:00
Registration
9:15 – 10:15
Session 1 – Swiss Young Surgeons Session
Johanna Willburger
Manuela Oberlechner
Do’s and dont’s in ventral hernia repair
Eva Deerenberg (Netherlands)
Preventing complications in inguinal hernia repair
Dietmar Eucker (Switzerland)
Becoming an abdominal wall surgeon
Davide Lomanto (Singapore)
10:15 – 11:15
Session 2 – The female hernia
Eva Deerenberg
Iliana Geogloman
Same but different: female hernias
Vedra Augenstein (USA)
How to treat female ventral hernias in child-bearing age
Sandra Widjaja Kaufmann (Switzerland)
Inguinal varicosis, Nuck cyst and intraoperative round ligament management
Saskia Urbani (Germany)
11:15 – 11:45
Coffee break
11:45 – 12:45
Session 3 – Important UpDates
Yuri Novitsky
Alexis Theodorou
Best three hernia papers in 2025: my choice
Walter Brunner (Switzerland)
Mesh technology: where are we 2025
Uli Dietz (Switzerland)
UpDate reimbursement system for hernia surgery in Switzerland
Marc-Oliver Sauvaign (Switzerland)
12:45 – 13:15
Lunch break
13:15 – 14:00
Lunch Symposium — Extraperitoneale Netzeinlage ohne Mikroplastik
Henry Hoffmann (CH)
Diastatic rectus with PhasixTM Mesh – Sandra Widjaja-Kaufmann (Switzerland)
Prevention – Nicole Koter (Austria)
Effects of microplastics on the human body – Tina Bürki-Thurnherr (Switzerland)
14:00 – 15:00
Session 4 – Grand Round – Diastasis recti
Henry Hoffmann
Philipp Kirchhoff
Podium: Jan Kukleta (Switzerland), Anders Olson (Sweden), Vedra Augenstein (USA), Eva Deerenberg (Netherlands), Gernot Köhler (Austria)
Input Talk – Treatment concepts of diastasis recti
Anders Olson (Sweden)
15:00 – 15:30
Coffee Break
15:30 – 16:30
Session 5 – Words of caution
Davide Lomanto
Jonathan Douissard
Disasters from component separation
Todd Heniford (USA)
Risk of hernia overtreatment in the area of robotic surgery
Frederik Helgstrand (Denmark)
I learned it from YouTube
Knut Borch (Norway)
16:30 – 17:30
Session 6 – When the shit hits the fan
Björn Mück
Jan Kukleta
Case 1 – Jonathan Douissard (Switzerland)
Case 2 – Gernot Köhler (Austria)
Case 3 – Alexis Theodorou (Greece)
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)
10:30 – 11:00
Coffee Break
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)
12:30 – 13:00
Lunch break
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
17:15