EHS extended surgical stay travel grant – Harstad Norway & Bucharest Romania
August & November 2022
I would like to thank EHS for giving me the opportunity to get EHS extended surgical stay travel grant for 2022! No words can describe my gratitude for getting the chance to get to know all these incredible AWR-surgeons who happily shared their knowledge with me and showed me great hospitality.
My first stay was at the Harstad University Hospital of North Norway where I got the pleasure to visit Dr Knut Borch, the EHS secretary of the Advisory board for Education, during one week in August 2022. The surgical program during my stay was a great combination of hernia repairs, AWR, lower GI-surgery and of course emergency cases. One of the most interesting cases we had was a patient suffering from his complex hernias. He had all kinds of hernias you can think of – several incisional hernias after colorectal surgeries along with bilateral inguinal hernias. Dr Knut with his amazing colleague Dr Lars Martin taught me how to perform a TAR after spending over 2 hours just to get access to the abdomen because of all the adhesions. And the result afterwards was completely worth all the hours in the OR!
My next stay was in Bucharest during one week in November 2022. My host Dr Victor Radu needs no further introduction and I’m sure all of you know what a great surgeon he is. We had a wide range of difficult cases and some of them had travelled from far away to get their surgeries done by Dr Radu and his team. I got demonstrated a PPP during local anaesthesia for a huge incisional hernia where the previous mesh was sticking out! And following days we got to see some more educational cases of the advanced incisional hernias in need of e-TEP combined with TAR. It was absolutely amazing to see the transformation of the patients and spent the whole week in the OR! Soo, if you want to see some extreme incisional hernias that you will probably see once in a lifetime, then it’s a must for you to visit Dr Radu!
I’m absolutely overwhelmed with all the experiences and knowledge I got about posterior component separation provided by all these amazing surgeons and I feel I reached my goals with the EHS travel grants. It was for sure one of the best and most memorable moments in my life and I learned so much!
Thank you EHS and thank you dear hernia friends for letting me be a part of the best family ever, the Hernia Family!
Best wishes
Ramia Stolt
