Thirty years spent making the abdominal wall his subject.

Ramana Balasubramaniam — Ram to colleagues and patients alike — is a Melbourne general surgeon whose practice has narrowed, year on year, to three things: the abdominal wall, the diaphragmatic hiatus, and the surgery of obesity. He trained in India, the United Kingdom and Australia, and holds the surgical fellowships of all three traditions — FRACS, FACS and FRCS.

Most of what he does is hernia surgery, and most of the hernia surgery that finds him is the difficult kind: large midline defects, hernias that have recurred once or twice already, abdominal walls that have lost their domain after multiple operations or infection. The straightforward repairs he is glad to do well; the complex ones are why other surgeons send patients to him.

The practice is deliberately small. The surgeon who assesses you in clinic is the one who operates and the one who reviews you afterwards. There is no rotating cast.

Where he focuses

• Abdominal wall reconstruction — component separation and transversus abdominis release (TAR) for large, recurrent and contaminated hernias.
• Inguinal & ventral hernia — open and laparoscopic (TEP/TAPP) repair, with mesh selected to the defect.
• Hiatal & paraoesophageal hernia — repair of the diaphragmatic hiatus, with or without anti-reflux surgery.
• Bariatric & metabolic surgery — sleeve gastrectomy, Roux-en-Y and one-anastomosis gastric bypass.
• Upper GI & general surgery — including endoscopy, with GESA credentialing underway.

Qualifications

He is a member of the Executive Committee of the Australia & New Zealand Hernia Society, and trained in advanced abdominal wall and minimally invasive surgery in the United Kingdom and Australia after qualifying in India.

Teaching & community

Ram founded the Abdominal Wall Reconstruction Surgeons Community, an international group of around 6,000 surgeons who share operative technique and difficult cases. He has taught operative courses across India, Asia and Europe, and holds faculty positions with the major hernia societies.

Selected talks & faculty

• Rod Jacob Address — Australia & New Zealand Hernia Society, Melbourne, 2025
• Keynote — Harvard MINT (Minimally Invasive New Technologies)
• Faculty — European Hernia Society
• Faculty — American Hernia Society
• Faculty — Japanese Hernia Society
• Invited speaker — Royal Australasian College of Surgeons annual scientific congress

Where he sees patients

Consultations are held in North Balwyn and Williamstown; surgery is concentrated at John Fawkner Private Hospital in Coburg, where the theatre team is familiar with complex abdominal wall work.