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Dr. Carlos Alberto Casalnuovo was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He received a medical degree from the University of Buenos Aires with honors (Summa Cum Laude) and completed his residency in General Surgery at the First Chair of Surgery of the University of Buenos Aires, Hospital de Clínicas “José de San Martin” where he was Chief Resident in 1975 and 1976.

Since 1977, he has been Attending Surgeon of the Gastroenterological Surgery Division of the Hospital de Clínicas, University of Buenos Aires, as well as Surgeon and Head of the Emergency Division and Trauma. He also served as Head of Surgical Outpatients and Experimental Surgery, as well as Chief of the Stomach and Duodenum Section and Vice-Director of Scrub Nurses School. Since 2002, he is Professor of Surgery at the School of Medicine of the University of Buenos Aires (UBA).

In 1995, he created the CUT (University Center of Trauma) being Executive Coordinator of the CEH (Hospital Emergency Committee). He was an ATLS and PHTLS instructor. He had a scholarship during 1980 and 1981 at the University of Aarhus, Denmark, to work together with Prof. Erik Amdrup, in gastroduodenal pathology and gastroesophageal reflux surgery, as well as experimental and clinical research in acute lesions of the gastric mucosa. During the same period, he studied aspects of organization and performance of the Emergency Services and Surgical Departments in several hospitals in Denmark.

He was awarded by the American College of Surgeons (ACS) as International Guest Scholar in 1983, becoming the third Argentinian surgeon owning this academic distinction, visiting for 4 months different surgical centers in the USA. He was a trainee in the European School of Oncology in Italy and France in 1991 and in surgery gastric cancer at the National Cancer Center and Kitasato University of Japan in 1995. He was also Visiting Professor in 32 surgical centers of the five continents.

In the decade of the ‘80s, he organized the team of Bariatric Surgery in the Hospital de Clínicas, University of Buenos Aires, after visiting different services of the specialty in the USA and in Scandinavia, performing the first bariatric surgery in Argentina in 1988, and incorporating laparoscopy in bariatric surgery in 1994. He is former Head of the Metabolic and Bariatric Surgical Section of the Gastrointestinal Division of the Hospital de Clínicas University of Buenos Aires.

In 1999, he opened the Obesity Surgery Center (Centro de Cirugía de la Obesidad - CCO) of Buenos Aires in private practice, where he is the Director. In 2000, he was founder of the Argentine Society of Obesity Surgery (SACO), becoming its President, Executive Director, and Honorary President, and developing several International Symposiums and meetings. He was the President of the XIII World Congress of IFSO that was developed in Buenos Aires in 2008. He participates as a regular member of the ASMBS in numerous congresses of the society and integrates the Committee of Public Education and Standards.

Dr. Casalnuovo is a member of the IFSO and was member of its Executive Board and the General Council and different committees such as Scientific, Investigational Surgical, and Endoscopic Procedures, as well as an abstracts reviewer. He also contributes as a reviewer of the Obesity Surgery Journal, published by Springer Nature. From the Symposium of Laparoscopic Bariatric Surgery in Naples and the World Congress in Salzburg in 1999, he has made presentations of scientific works in all the IFSO world congresses until current time.

Since the creation of the IFSO chapters in 2005, he participated actively in the development of the Latin American Chapter, being its President (IFSO-LAC) from 2011 to 2013. He was a pioneer in Laparoscopy Adjustable Gastric Band, with one of the largest early experience in Latin America. He has been proctor in bariatric surgery in many procedures. The original contributions made by him in the specialty include the following: pathophysiological study of acute lesions of the gastroduodenal mucosa; improvement of reflux esophagitis surgical treatment techniques; percutaneous puncture-aspiration diagnosis under ultrasound control; percutaneous treatment of serous hepatic cysts and intra-abdominal abscesses; morbid obesity surgical treatment program; standardization of lymph node dissection techniques of gastric cancer; development of the computerized registry program of gastric cancer; endoscopic ultrasonography EUS for staging gastric tumors; development of the internal and external Hospital Disasters plan; and development of the Hospital Emergency Committee and simulations in the care of victims of disasters.

Dr. Casalnuovo is also a Full Academic of the Argentine Academy of Surgery, member of 25 societies, author of more than 150 scientific works, author of five handbooks and seven book chapters of surgery, a participant in more than 200 Scientific Congresses, lecturer in more than 140 conferences, and has established more than 300 communications and presentations. Additionally, he was Director and lecturer in more than 400 pre and postgraduate courses and has received seven awards and eight Distinctions of Scientific Order.

In summary, his performance continues to excel until today in the Hospital de Clínicas at the University of Buenos Aires and in the private practice as Director of the Center for Obesity Surgery (CCO), as well as gastrointestinal, laparoscopic, proctology, and trauma surgeon.

His most important hobbies are snow skiing, scuba diving, and golf. He lives in Buenos Aires, Argentina, with his wife Claudia and his son Nicolás.