Achievements of an Academic Bariatric Surgeon in Greece during the Last Two Decades

Alexandrou A, Dimitrokallis N,

Abstract

During the last two decades morbid obesity has risen as a global epidemic and the concurrent advent of laparoscopic and robotic surgery has led to an unparalleled booming of bariatric surgery. As a result, bariatric surgery has risen from a rather peculiar surgical subspecialty to one of the main components of the surgical training curriculum. The first generation of minimally invasive bariatric surgeons has been stepping down worldwide after all these decades of tireless and pioneering work both in the clinical and academic setting. Consecutively the pillars of bariatric surgery in Greece resigned last year. This article tries to summarize and review the work of Professor Diamantis of National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, whose efforts helped establish the modern era of bariatric surgery in Greece managing to follow the pace of progress worldwide, remaining seemingly unbound by the restrictions of this small country.