What’s your name?
Dr. Alexander Rothe.
How old are you?
50 years old.
Where do you come from?
Austria.
How long have you been an EHS member?
Since 2020.
Describe a day at work as a surgeon in your country:
My typical robotic hernia day (Friday) starts at 6:45 a.m. with pre-operative visits to the patients scheduled for surgery. At 7:00 a.m. we have our morning meeting and ward round, before heading to the OR at 8:00 a.m. for 2–3 robotic hernia repairs. The operating list usually finishes around 3:30 p.m., followed by the post-op ward round, and I typically leave the hospital around 5:00 p.m. The rest of the week is a mix of general MIS surgery, hernia surgery and interventional endoscopy. On top of that, I do 4–5 25-hour shifts per month, with plenty of acute cases.
What is your favourite AWR procedure/hernia surgery?
Robotic eTEP repair combined with preoperative Botox injections for large ventral/incisional hernias +/- TAR (transversus abdominis release).
Why is it your favourite procedure?
It’s an elegant, anatomically and technically demanding approach — and in many cases Botox avoids the need for a TAR.
Who inspired you to become a hernia enthusiast/surgeon?
In Austria, across open and laparoscopic hernia surgery: Gernot Köhler, Bernhard Dauser, Franz Mayr, René Fortelny, and Christian Hollinsky. Internationally, especially in robotic surgery: Filip Muysoms, Conrad Ballecer, David Chen, Björn Mück, and David Lourié.
Please, give a small tip or trick to share for this or any other hernia procedure?
If you’re struggling to close the defect during robotic eTEP, lower the insufflation pressure to 6 mmHg and let the shoestring technique do the work — patience is key.
Have you attended an EHS congress, meeting, or course?
2023 Sitges, 2025 Paris, 2026 Porto; EHS Advanced Open Hernia Surgery, Reims (11/2024); EHS Advanced MIS Cadaveric Hernia Course, Amsterdam (4/2025); FEBS AWS, Paris (2025).
Which made the biggest impression on you?
Porto 2026 above all, though I also loved the Reims course led by Yohann Renard
What made it great?
Great scientific program, many good conversations with colleagues from different countries, and of course the city of Porto itself. The Gala evening was probably the best one I have attended so far, especially the concert by the all-star hernia surgeons’ band “Loss of Domain”….and Reims stood out for the hands-on teaching in the historic home of the Rives technique.
How can the EHS help you in the future?
By expanding the course offering, especially at the Basic and Intermediate levels, and by investing in train-the-trainer programmes. If the EHS trains the trainers, national societies like the Austrian Hernia Society (ÖHG) can multiply that knowledge locally and reach far more surgeons than any single course ever could.
What is your dream for the future of hernia surgery?
My dream is to see a structured hernia curriculum established as the standard in surgical training in Austria. Hernia surgery is still too often treated as the “simple” case a trainee gets handed on a busy day, when in reality it demands anatomical precision and a real understanding of the abdominal wall. A defined pathway – from basic repairs to complex AWR – would give young surgeons a clear direction, and give patients more consistent outcomes across the country.