To our knowledge, this study also represents the first GWAS of hiatus hernia in which we identified eight susceptibility loci of which four loci (2p16.1 (EFEMP1), 6p22.2 (BTN2A1), 7q33 (CALD1), 11p13 (WT1) are known to correlate with abdominal hernia. Here, WT1 is linked to Hernia of the abdominal wall.