Asst Lect. Dr. Joachim Conze

The UM Dr. Conze Hernia Center in Munich is a nationally and internationally established specialist practice for the treatment of hernias. Since its establishment by Dr. Ulrike Muschaweck in 1993, over 25,000 hernias have been treated surgically in this first European hernia center. At the end of 2017, after five years collaboration, Dr. Muschaweck left the Hernia Center, which has been carried on by Dr. Conze since that time. In 2012, following over 20 years at the Department of Surgery of the RWTH Aachen, Asst Lect. Dr. Joachim Conze specialized exclusively in the treatment of inguinal hernias and abdominal wall hernias.

He is the cofounder and General Secretary of the German Hernia Association (DHG) and has served on the Board of the European Hernia Association (EHS) for many years. He has long-standing experience in hernia surgery and is a recognized, optimally networked specialist in his field. Together with the care of inguinal and femoral hernias, incisional hernias, umbilical and epigastric hernias, a particular focus on the treatment of sportsman’s groin, patients with recurrent hernias and chronic pain following earlier procedures has developed in recent years.

Here, the patient and his condition take center stage. After a detailed history, thorough clinical and sonography examination, an individual therapeutic concept, adapted for the patient, is developed and discussed with him. The following questions are considered here: Does the hernia have to be treated surgically at all and if so, can this be performed as a day surgery / out-patient procedure ... and does the repair really need a synthetic mesh? Here, the Hernia Center has specialized, in particular, in open surgical techniques. This allows the decision concerning the mesh to be made during surgery and individually adapted to each patient, so-called “tailoring”. This tailoring, based on the local findings and the personal risk profile of the individual patient, frequently allows treatment without synthetic mesh. The mesh-free “minimal repair technique” was specially developed by Dr. Ulrike Muschaweck for top athletes from across the world, who frequently suffer from painful sportsman’s groin. In the meantime, this has also been established as a successful treatment method for smaller inguinal hernias.

A further focus of the Hernia Center in Munich is the treatment of chronic inguinal pain, above all, following previous surgery with a mesh insertion, which frequently makes a mesh explantation and/or neurectomy necessary. Here, the “intra-operative nerve response” (IONR) developed at the Hernia Center enables precise pain localization during surgery. Supervised by an experienced anesthesiology team, almost all procedures are performed under local anesthetic, or, on request, under a light twilight sleep, avoiding a general anesthetic ... another advantage of the open repair technique! The procedures are performed in the Starnberg County Hospital. Here, patients have the option of accommodation and treatment in the hospital’s guesthouse (residence). Dr. Conze and his team would be delighted to answer your enquiries.