GREPA was founded 1979 by JP Chevrel and a group of friends sharing the desire to promote and improve ABDOMINAL WALL SURGERY. The group consisted of surgeons, intensive care specialists, anatomists, radiologists and physiologists whose aims were:

“The promotion of abdominal wall surgery, the study of anatomic, physiologic and therapeutic problems related to the pathology of the abdominal wall, the creation of associated groups which will promote research and teaching in this field, and the development of interdisciplinary realations”.

Jean Layque was the first president. The first meeting took place in Paris in 1979. For the first 10 years, this group stayed quite private and organised an annual workshop which was held at Paris-Bobigny under the presidency of the first Secretary General, JP Chevrel. GREPA gradually outgrew national bondaries by admitting first Italian surgeon, followed by surgeons from other European contries.

As of 1997, the creation of a journal HERNIA, the Journal of Hernia and Abdominal Wall Surgery, the official Journal of the GREPA and AHS (American Hernia Society), provided an international diffusion of their scientific work, and those from other national and international societies.  The society’s association with this journal was down graded to affiliation in 2018.

In 1998, the name GREPA was changed to the European Hernia Society – GREPA, although soon shortened to the EHS-GREPA.  In 1999 an Internet site was created herniaweb.com which was  changed in 2002 to »www.herniaweb.org«, and then more recently to the current web address.

In 2021, the name of the society changed to simply ‘EHS’, with a rebranded logo.