About ISDS  

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In early 1969, Professor Louis F. Hollender of Strasbourg, France and Professors Giuseppe Grassi and G. Benedetti-Valentini of Rome, Italy initiated discussions on how to gather together gastrointestinal surgeons of world renown and create an organization through which digestive surgical issues could be debated in a specialized and yet open forum.

 

On September 29, 1969, the trio founded the Collegium Internationale Chirurgiae Digestivae (CICD) as an offshoot to the Société Internationale de Chirurgie. The founding aims of the new college were clearly defined: to present current information to the medical world concerning advances in gastrointestinal surgery, to permit the free exchange of new knowledge, to allow comparison of experiences, to stimulate clinical studies and to seek improved diagnostic and therapeutic measures. It was agreed that there would be no political, racial, ideological or religious discrimination. The only criteria for membership would be surgical merit and proven. The Society currently has 1205 members representing twenty three countries.

 

Professor J.L. Lortat-Jacob of Paris was the CICD 's first President and the first International Congress was held in 1971 in San Remo, Italy with more than 800 gastrointestinal surgeons from 27 different countries attending.

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During the 1998 Congress held in Madrid, Spain, the General Assembly voted to change the name of the organization to the International Society for Digestive Surgery to reflect the global recognition of digestive surgery in the twenty-first century.

 

To prevent any overlap with the meeting of the Société Internationale de Chirurgie, it was decided to hold the second Congress after only one year with subsequent international World Congresses to be held every other year in the even years. The 1972 International CICD Congress was held in Strasbourg. Then followed the Chicago Congress (1974), the Davos Congress (1976) and the Sao Paulo Congress (1978). All these meetings recorded an increasing number of participants. In Lisbon in 1980 about 1300 members and guests gathered, followed by the 1982 Congress in Tokyo, and the 1984 Amsterdam Congress which 1900 participants attended. CICD International World Congresses were then held in Jerusalem (1986), Copenhagen (1988), Delhi (1990), Athens (1992), Los Angeles (1994), Seoul (1996), Madrid (1998), Hamburg (2000), Hong Kong (2002), and Yokohama (2004). The 2006 Congress has been held in Rome, Italy with over 700 attendees. 

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The first ISDS Congress within the World Congress of Surgery (formerly International Surgical Week) was in Adelaide, Australia on September 2009. After that ISDS had a significant presence in the following World Congresses: Yokohama, Japan (August 2011), Helsinki, Finland (August 2013), Bangkok, Thailand (August 2015), Basel, Switzerland (August 2017), Krakow, Poland (August 2019) and Vienna, Austria (August 2022). Future congresses can be found here.

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The ISDS official journal is the World Journal of Surgery, under the leadership of Editor in Chief Prof Sherry M. Wren.

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Our organization is run by an Executive Committee which consists of the President, President- Elect, Past President, Secretary General, Deputy Secretary General Treasurer General, up to eight Councillors, aided by the Board of Consultants, comprised of five Past Presidents and the Program Committee. 

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