10 July 2016
Dear Members of the MGB/OAGB Club,
Following a proposal at the MGB Conclave in India, our MGB Club was formed at IFSO Vienna. As a "club", it is intended to be a friendly interchange. It already has ~175 members. Our website is www.mgb-oagb-club.org and our Facebook group is at www.facebook.com/groups/mgboagbclub.
The name on Pubmed is now being diluted by some papers. Note that SAGB is the term used for silicone adjustable gastric band, and Omega loop is a Greek letter unknown to many surgeons and confused with other operations. MGB or OAGB are intended to be used for the indicated operation (See upper paper attached).
OAGB (first performed in 2002 in Spain) is a specific variant of the MGB (first performed in 1997 in the USA) – ie. MGB and OAGB are two different operations but have similar principles which are the reason for the combined collaboration of our Members. As voted at our Vienna organizing dinner and indicated on our website, we emphasize that we use MGB or OAGB, depending on the specific modification.
IMPORTANT NOTICE:
MEMBERS OF THE MGB/OAGB CLUB ARE REQUIRED TO USE THE NAME MGB AND OAGB (DEPENDING ON THE OPERATION) FOR THEIR PAPERS AND PRESENTATIONS.
This decision by the Executive of our organization for maintaining Membership is emphasized, because, although the MGB has been performed since 1997 and the Spanish OAGB has been performed since 2002, many venues have been trying to change our names variously, often for antagonistic, self-serving, meddling or mischievous purposes.
This has not happened with any other bariatric operation, is an insult, and will lose our major past published papers.
Sincerely,
Kuldeepak S. Kular, President of MGB/OAGB Club
Mario Musella, Vice-President of MGB/OAGB
Miguel A. Carbajo, Chief Executive
Robert Rutledge, Honorary President
Mervyn Deitel, Director of MGB/OAGB Club