The 13th annual conference of the Hernia Society of India was conducted by Belle Vue Clínic, Kolkata. The local organisers were Dr Sarfaraz J Baig, Dr Satyapriya DeSarkar and Dr Ramesh Agarwalla. They were ably supported by HSI core group – Dr Sandeep Dave, Dr Manish Baijal, Dr Deepraj Bhandarkar, Dr Sumeet Shah, Dr Ganesh Shenoy, Dr Sivakumar, Dr Achal Gupta and others.
The 3 day event incorporated pre conference courses, live demonstrations of Lichtenstein, TAPP, TEP, eTEP TAR, IPOM, IPOM plus, open TAR and SCOLA followed by didactic lectures by experts.
The attendance of 800 surgeons and packed halls from all over the world was a testimony to the usefulness of the scientific content. In addition to the most renowned national faculty, the presence of Todd Heniford, Filip Muysoms, Wolfgang Reinpold, Andrew de Beaux, Macky Faylona, Domingo Sampang, Sarder Nayeem, Ritu Khare, Ananth Pai, Merezban Katrak and Suthep U ensured a rich academic content. Teleconferencing with Brian Jacob, David Chen, Eric Pauli and Yohann Renard was a session that the audience found extremely interesting.
The pre conference courses on Laparoscopic Groin Hernia repair, Laparoscopic ventral Hernia repair, Robotics, Newer Hernia Procedures, Component Separation Technique on Cadaver and Mentoring saw an unprecedented response running to packed houses. A total of 150 delegates participated in these training programs.
There was a poll survey conducted at the beginning and at the end of the conference that showed up how the sessions influenced the thought process of the surgeons.
Evening programs were designed to be musical to soothen the tired minds and even the surgeons demonstrated their creative talents with elan.
This was a no paper, no waste conference and as such no mementos/ paper certificates were given. Only e certificates have been issued to all participants. There was a fair representation of the young surgeons of India on the stage in both organising the event and presenting their astounding work.
HSICON 2019 was a sincere endeavour to improve the current understanding about hernia and spread the awareness of modern practices to all the surgeons in the community.