Welcome message from The Secretary General

It is an honour for me personally and as Secretary General of the Society, to welcome you in the European Hernia Society.

The European Hernia Society was founded in France under the name Grepa, by a group of French Surgeons who established themselves in history in the Abdominal Wall Surgery: J. Rives, R. Stoppa, J.P.Chevrel. J.B. Flament, J.H. Alexandre and many more.

This group of friends, then, started to grow and now all European Nations are involved.
The European Hernia Society with its different organs represents the maximum scientific, academic and educational expression and together with the American Hernia Society and Asia Pacific Hernia Society represents in fact a real School of Surgery in the world.

It is indeed a great honour for me to be a part of it as a Member of the Society and as a Member of the Board, expressly as Secretary General, historical role of J.P.Chevrel. All the surgeons throughout the world, interested in this type of Surgery, can register and are more than welcome to participate to any events and to any kind of confrontation. It is therefore my pleasure to invite you to be a part of our big Society.

Today the European Hernia Society operates on several fronts with its different aspects: the scientific one, the organizational one and the humanitarian one.

Under the scientific point of view I would like to mention the recent goals obtained and the future perspectives:

The beginning and the conclusion of the first E.H.S. international multicenter trial based on the comparison between the use of Fibrin glue and the use of sutures in Lichtenstein inguinal hernia repair (TIMELI Trial chaired by the Secretary General).

The beginning and the progress of another international multicenter trial based on the comparison between biological prosthesis and synthetic ones and open and laparoscopic surgery of incisional hernia (LAPSIS Trial chaired by M. Miserez Secretary for scientific research).

The realization of an unique classification of the European Hernia Society for the inguinal-primary hernias, obtained in Capri thanks to the initiative of Franco Corcione, eminent Italian surgeon Past President of the Society.

The realization of European guidelines for the inguinal Hernia Surgery, organized with eminent European researchers for initiative of Maarten Simons, eminent Dutch surgeon, Member of the Society.

The beginning of the European Register of biological prosthesis for initiative of Fausto Catena, Marc Miserez, Paolo Negro and the Secretary General.

The hypothesis of a new trial based on the comparison between on-lay and sub-lay prosthesis for the repairing incisional hernia surgery, proposed by Andrew Kingsnorth, President of the Society for the 3 years period 2007-2010.

The hypothesis of another new trial on the different possibilities of the TROCAR`s incisional hernia proposed by Vincenzo Mandalà, our President Elect for the 3 years period 2010-2013.  

It is also important to mention, always under the scientific point of view, the realization and the regular publication of our Hernia Journal, official organ of our Society and of the American Hernia Society.
The perfect editorial direction in Europe is thanks to the hard work of Volker Schumpelick, Editor in Chief with Robert Fitzgibbons who besides incrementing the scientific contents, was also able to manage the publication of 6 issues a year.

Under the organizational point of view I would like to point out the regular annual frequency of our Congress that every 3 years joins the American Hernia Society. The next Congresses are: 2010 Istanbul, 2011 Ghent, 2012 USA (joint Congress with AHS), 2013 Poland, 2014 Edinburgh, 2015 Milan, 2016 Holland.

Again under the organizational point of view for the last six years it has been organized a Winter Meeting in Madonna di Campiglio, Italy, reserved to the Board Members and to a few distinguished guests in order to better organize the Society activities and to clarify some scientific aspects which are essential for the development of new studies, trials and experimentations; the organization of �Mesh� a French meeting organized by Gerard Champault; besides, thanks to the realization of the National Chapters, it was possible to identify, in Europe, those Nations that were more interested and therefore to increase their involvement in our Society, thanks to the President of Permanent Advisory Committee J.H. Alexandre.

The creation of an excellent web-site, thanks to Andreas Hoeferlin, the web-site Secretary, allows now the possibility of a quicker contact between the Society Institutional Organs and all the Members and besides it makes the registration process and the choice of the Hernia Journal version (electronic or printed) easier.

The humanitarian aspect of our Society played, in the last few years, a big role thanks to the inauguration of the Hernia Project intended to help African countries and in particular Ghana. A project that was strongly wanted and it was organized by Andrew Kingsnorth and that includes the active participation of the Board Members (such as Morales, Smietanski, Simmermacher, Campanelli) and many volunteers from the different National Chapters.

Besides, the co-operation between the American Hernia Society and some Members from the European National Chapters including myself allowed the participation to another humanitarian project in favour to some population from Central America and in particular the Dominican Republics on the borderline with Haiti, inside the ILAC Project. It is evident that the Society is now fully involved in this topic.

On the basis of the Society past, considering the results obtained so far and with the strong will of committing ourselves more and more in order to improve the scientific evidence level, I wish all the people who want to be a part of this exciting discipline to get involved in the Society at all levels with the same spirit that made the creation of this Society possible and that is, a great friendship and the quality of the human relations based on the mutual esteem and the high scientific interest.