Dr. Isao Kawamura, a Pioneer in Morbid Obesity Treatment in Japan

Excerpt

On May 10, 2012 International Federation of the Surgery for Obesity and Metabolic Disorders―Asia Pacific Chapter (IFSO-APC) and Japanese Society of Surgery for Obesity and Metabolic Disorders (JSSO) lost one of its founding members. Dr. Isao Kawamura died of a heart attack at the age of 69. Dr. Kawamura was born on June 12, 1942 and received his medical degree from the School of Medicine of Chiba University in March 1968. He also received his Ph.D. from Chiba University after completing his surgical residences at Chiba University Hospital. He was a research fellow at Harvard University from December 1980 to March 1982. Soon after his return, he started working in the Department of Surgery at Chiba University Medical School and there, performed the first surgical procedure on a morbid obese person in the same year. Japan is believed to lag behind other advanced countries in bariatric surgery, but this epoch-making but much-needed surgery by Dr. Kawamura changed the current status of research and the development of surgical techniques for the treatment of morbid obesity in Japan. …