Management of Abdominal Hernias

Karl Andrew LeBlanc, MD, MBA, FACS, FASMBS, Abdominal wall, bariatric and general surgeon, Baton Rouge, LA, USA, 1984-present. Attended the Louisiana State School of Medicine in Shreveport, LA, and USA from 1974-1978, followed by a General Surgical Residency from 1978-1983. From 1983-1984, he returned to his hometown of Breaux Bridge, LA, USA but saw the need to pursue his career in a larger city. He remains active in the private practice of general surgery, specializing in herniology and bariatric surgery. He is Professor of Surgery at the Louisiana State School of Medicine Department of Surgery and Associate Medical Director of Surgery of the Our Lady of the Lake Physician Group.

Born in a rural area of southern Louisiana known for its "Cajun" heritage, he pursued his undergraduate education in nearby Lafayette, LA at the University of Southwestern Louisiana. Even at that early age, he was interested in the medical field. During his surgical residency, the interest in hernia was sparked and this has been with him ever since then. During this residency, he was able to become familiar with laparoscopic surgery and used it for diagnostic purposes. Once the laparoscopic era of general surgery began, he rapidly engaged in the advancement of this wonderful tool. His research led to his performance of the world's first laparoscopic incisional hernia repair in 1991.He is a founding member of the Americas Hernia Society and has served as its President. He sits on the Editorial Board of the journals Hernia and the Journal of the Society of Laparoendoscopic Surgery and a peer reviewer for numerous national and international journals. He has lectured internationally on numerous topics. He has edited or co-edited five surgical texts, some of which has been translated into Turkish and Chinese. He has authored over numerous articles and/or book chapter contributions. Research continues to be an area of interest and he serves a principal investigatorof several projects at this time.

David L. Sanders BSc(Hons), MBChB, FRCS, MD, PGDipMedEd. David Sanders received his undergraduate degree from the University of Edinburgh in 2003. He received postgraduate training in the South West of England and a trauma fellowship in South Africa. His doctorate thesis was on the influence of mesh and fixation techniques on infection in abdominal wall hernia repair. In 2016 he was appointed consultant upper GI surgeon and and specialist in abdominal wall reconstruction at North Devon Hospital, Barnstaple, Devon, UK.

David specializes in surgery of the gallbladder, anti reflux, hiatal surgery and hernia surgery. He is an internationally recognized expert in the field of abdominal wall reconstruction with over 50 publications in the field of hernia surgery and several book chapters. He has given numerous invited lectures on the topic both nationally and internationally. David is on the board of the British Hernia Society, Chaired the National Institute for Clinical Excellence approved commissioning guidance for groin hernia, was involved in developing the RightCare patient decision aid for inguinal hernias and is on the European working group that developed the Abdominal Wall Closure Guidelines and the International Hernia Guidelines. David is the editor of the Bulletin of the Royal College of Surgeons of England.

Andrew Kingsnorth JP, BSc (Hons), MB BS, MS, FRCS, FACS, General, pancreatic and abdominal wall surgeon, Derriford Hospital, Plymouth, UK and Professor of Surgery Peninsula College of Medicine, 1996-2013. Qualified at the Royal Free Hospital School of Medicine in London in 1973 and undertook postgraduate training in Norwich, Oxford, Harvard, Edinburgh and Cape Town. Appointed consultant surgeon, senior lecturer and subsequently reader in surgery at the University of Liverpool (1987-1996) before moving to Plymouth.

Born into the austerity of post-War Britain, Andrewwas brought up in rural Kent and educated at Sevenoaks School where he acquired a lifelong interest in voluntary service and internationalism. He has been Arris & Gale Lecturer (1983) and Hunterian Professor (2007) at the Royal College of Surgeons of England. He is Past-President of the Pancreatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, Founding President of the British Hernia Society, Past-President of the European Hernia Society and President of the Section of Surgery of the Royal Society of Medicine.

In 1993 he chaired the Royal College of Surgeons of England working party that introduced the first national Guidelines for the Management of Adult Inguinal Hernia . In 1998 he established the Plymouth Hernia Service, the first specialist hernia unit in a public hospital, and pioneered the Lichtenstein operation in the UK. In 2007, he was the first surgeon outside India to use low-cost mosquito net mesh for hernia repair in low-resource countries. With Dr Ravindranath Tongaonkar (q.v.) and David Sanders (q.v.) he has carried out clinical and laboratory research to support the global use of mosquito net mesh hernioplasty. Andrew has championed the Chevrel (q.v.) prefascial, onlay incisional hernia repair with a series of over 500 cases.

Between 2001 and 2014, Andrew participated in over 30 humanitarian surgical missions to Eastern and Central Europe, Central Asia, The Far East, SE Asia, Africa and South America. In 2005 he established a Hernia charity which is now the largest and most active such organisation in the world. In 2010, The Times of London in a survey of top doctors, noted that Andrew was "regarded as the UK's expert on hernias".

Andrew retired from academic and clinical practice in 2013, but continues to lecture occasionally and acts as Director of Hernia International.