The Romanian Hernia Club, founded on May 4, 2015, appeared as an initiative of surgeons Dan Ioan Ulmeanu, Dan Cristian, Victor Strâmbu, Florin Turcu, Stelian Pantea and Valentin Calu, interested and involved in abdominal wall surgery, motivated and inspired by the participation repeated at the congresses organized by the European Hernia Society (EHS).
The Board of Directors consists of Prof. Dr. Dan Ioan Ulmeanu, as President, Prof. Dr. Dan Cristian as Vice-President, Prof. Dr. Florin Turcu, as Scientific Director and Asoc. Prof. Dr. Valentin Calu, as General Secretary and national delegate to EHS.
The Romanian Hernia Club is the only professional association in Romania accredited by EHS as a National Chapter. The Romanian Hernia Club has been recognized and supported since its foundation by the main surgical societies in Romania, the Romanian Society of Surgery (SRC) and the Romanian Association for Endoscopic Surgery (RAES/ARCE). The club has developed close collaborative relationships, being present with sessions dedicated to the national scientific events organized by these entities. From the beginning, our desire was to create an environment in which doctors with concerns in the field of abdominal wall surgery from all over the country would be encouraged to discuss and actively participate in the scientific debates related to the various aspects in this field.
Several symposia were organized under the auspices of the Romanian Hernia Club, in which papers and debates covering both the open and the laparoscopic approach in abdominal wall surgery were brought together, which attracted a significant number of participants. In each meeting, the importance of the guidelines proposed by EHS through practical guides is emphasized, their adoption at the national level being supported.
Our club is actively involved in training and supporting medical residents and early career specialists. At the Surgical Training Institute (STI), within Ponderas Academic Hospital, courses dedicated to minimally invasive surgery of the abdominal wall are frequently organized, in collaboration with ARCE. The courses include seminars that address both the theoretical aspects and the principles underlying surgical interventions, followed by the presentation of live procedures and hands-on training on simulators and biological models.
One of the projects carried out by the Romanian Hernia Club is the creation of a Romanian Hernia Registry, starting from the consideration that the first step in the implementation of the European guidelines is to know the current situation, in order to be able to identify the measures necessary to standardize the surgical act.
We intend to attract to our ranks as many doctors as possible with a professional interest in abdominal wall surgery. We support and encourage the members of the Romanian Hernia Club to become members of EHS and we appreciate the facilities offered by the European society in this regard. We consider the relationship with EHS as the primary source of scientific guidelines and information that will influence surgical practices to the benefit of our patients to be of vital importance.
