Kremer, Linner, and other early pioneers

The First Bariatric Operation:
Kremen and Linner's Jeiuno-ileal Bypass:

Bariatric surgery has continually evolved since its initial sporadic and tentaive introduction in the 1950's. The first Bariatric procedure to be preceded by animal studies and subsequently presented to a recognized surgivcal society and published in a peer reviewed journal was that of Kremen and associates in 1954.(Kremen, Linner et al. 1954) The case which they presented was of a jeijno-ileal bypass.(JIB). Jejuno-ileal bypass involved joining the upper small intestine to the lower part of the small bowel, which is thus taken out of the nutrient absorptive circuit. In the discussion of the case, Philip Sandblom of Lund, Sweden, alluded to the fact that, two years previously, Victor Henriksson of Gothenberg, Sweden, had performed a similar procedure for morbid obesity. He excised the redundant small bowel rather than bypassing it. Subsequently it was discovered that Dr Richard Varco of the University of Minnesota independently performed JIB at the University of Minnesota Hospitals around the same time as the operation of Kremen et al.Varco's case was unpublished and the patient record lost, so that the exact procedure date is unknown.(Buchwald and Rucker 1984)