The First Annual Gulf Obesity Surgery Society Meeting

Kuwait City
December 11 to 14, 2013

by Abdelrahman A. Nimeri, MBBCh, FACS, FASMBS

Dr. Nimeri is Director, Bariatric and Metabolic Institute (BMI) Abu Dhabi, Chief, Division of General, Thoracic and Vascular Surgery, Surgeon Champion, ACS NSQIP. Associate Program Director, ACGME-I Accredited Surgery residency program. Fellowship Program Director, MIS & Bariatric Surgery Fellowship Program, Sheikh Khalifa Medical City, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.

Bariatric Times. 2014;11(2):13.

The First Annual Gulf Obesity Surgery Society (GOSS) meeting was held in Kuwait City December 11 to 14, 2013, at Jumeirah Messilah Beach Hotel. This annual meeting will continue to take place on a rotation basis between all six Gulf countries—Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, and Bahrain. GOSS was established in May 2013 in Dubai, and the executive board of 18 members were elected to include three members from each Gulf country. Dr. Mohamed Al Jarallah from Kuwait serves as GOSS president.

The First Annual GOSS meeting featured the fifth Annual Sheikh Khalifa Medical City (SKMC)-Cleveland Clinic Obesity Symposium and the Second Kuwait Society of Metabolic Surgery meeting. The meeting was co-chaired by Drs. Salman Al Sabah from Kuwait and Abdelrahman Nimeri from the UAE. The meeting faculty included international, regional, and local experts in bariatric and metabolic surgery from the United States, Canada, Spain, The Netherlands, Taiwan, The United Kingdom, Italy, Brazil, India, Australia, Iran, and Lebanon. Faculty included Drs Phillip Schauer, Karl Miller, Michel Gagner, WJ Lee, Gerald Fried, Ahmed Ahmed, Shaw Somers, Jan Greve, Marco Anselmino, Cristano Giardello, Evan Nadler, Alfredo Genco, Ramon Turro, Almino Ramos, Maffazal Lakadawala, John Dixon, Josemberg Campos, Mohamed Talebpour, and Haytham Fawal.

The program was spread over four days, starting with a pre-conference revisional live surgery workshop from Al Amiri hospital. The first day of the GOSS meeting started with live surgery in the morning followed by reports on outcomes of bariatric surgery from all six Gulf countries and an appraisal of the current published literature regarding bariatric surgery in these countries. After the reports, the Minister of Health of Kuwait, Sheikh Mohamed Abdalla Al Sabah, opened the meeting with his remarks. A key note lecture about surgical progress from Dr. Gerald Fried, the current president of Society of American Gastrointestinal and Endoscopic Surgeons (SAGES), followed. Next, Dr. Dixon spoke on the value and impact of bariatric surgery registries, and Dr. Schauer spoke on the current status of metabolic surgery in 2013. The final session of the first day included a review all randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of surgery for type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) by Dr. Schauer, a debate about surgery for T2DM in BMI less than 35kg/kg/m2 by Drs. Ramos andlee, and two lectures regarding the long-term outcomes of bariatric surgery for T2DM and the metabolic syndrome by Drs Gagner and Somers.

On the second day, we started two debates. The first debate, led by Drs. Lakadawala and Miller, was on whether Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (RYGB) is still the golden standard. The second debate, led by Drs. Gari and Lee, was whether malabsorptive procedures are suitable for the Gulf and Middle east region. The following session discussed emerging procedures, including the gastric plication, presented by Dr Talebpour, and mini gastric bypass, presented by Drs Lee, Youssef, and Juanita.

The next session was a video session about revisional and complications of bariatric surgery.
The First Annual GOSS meeting was a success and we look forward to the next one. To learn more about the meeting and the GOSS, please visit www.gulfobesity.com

FUNDING: No funding was provided.

DISCLOSURES: The author reports no conflicts of interest relevant to the content of this article.

Category: Past Articles, Symposium Synopsis