Founded as the Collegium Internationale Chirugiae Digestivae

Overview of ISDS

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 honesty. 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.

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 year. The 1972 International CICD Congress was held in Strasbourg. Then followed the Chicago Congress (1974), the Davos Congress (1976), and the Sâo 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) and Seoul (1996), Madrid (1998), Hamburg (2000), Hong Kong (2002), Yokohama (2004).

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.

The ISDS is incorporated as a tax exempt membership organization--501(c)(6)-in the state of Wisconsin, USA. Worldwide membership approximates 1940-80 surgeons representing over thirty countries. The World Journal of Surgery had served as the semi-official publication of the Collegium until 1997; following with Digestive Surgery. ISDS is run by an Executive Committee which consists of the Honorary President, President, Past President, President-Elect, Secretary-General, Treasurer-General, up to eight Councillors-at-Large, and the Representative to the Editorial Board of the Digestive Surgery. Terms of office of these officers and members of the Executive Committee are outlined in the statutes which are the By-Laws of the organization. The international organization comprise individual national sections which appoint a national delegate who sits on the International Committee along with the members of the Executive Committee.