Special
Contribution
Ahmed Shafik
was born on May 10th, 1933 in Menoufia, Egypt and died on October 31st, 2007 in Paris, France at the age of 74 years. He was educated at the Faculty of Medicine, Cairo University, and Cairo, Egypt and qualified with honors in 1957. He worked as a Registrar in the Department of Surgery, Cairo University Teaching Hospitals from 1958-1960. He was awarded a Doctorate Fellowship at the Department of Surgery , Faculty of Medicine, Cairo University from 1960-1962 and obtained his MD degree in 1962. Since that time, He worked his way through his academic career as professor of general surgery in 1975 and was elected Chairman of the Department of Surgery and Experimental Research at the same faculty in 1990. He passed away on October 31st, 2007 from Cardiac insufficiency in Paris.
Shafik served on many national, regional and international organization and association committees and executive boards.
MEMBERSHIPS IN SCIENTIFIC ORGANIZATIONS AND MEDICAL ASSOCIATIONS
Member of Board of Editors or Peer Reviewer
Member, Board of Editors, Frontiers in Bioscience, USA
Member, Board of Editors, Archives of Andrology, USA
Member, Board of Editors, Journal of Investigative Surgery, USA
Member, Board of Editors, Chirurgia, Italy
Member, Board of Editors, Urgentis Chirurgiae Commentaria, Italy
Member, Board of Editors, Advances in Reproduction, USA
Member, Board of Editors, Contraceptive Delivery Systems, USA
Member, Int’l Board of Editors, Italian Journal of Coloproctology, Italy
Active
Memberships
President Int. Academy of Coloproctology, USA (1986)
President Int’l Society of University Colon & Rectal Surgeons, USA (2004)
Regional Vice President, Int’l Society of University Colon & Rectal Surgeons, USA (1990)
Co-Founder, Hon. President, Mediterranean Society of ColoProctology, Italy (2000)
Co-Founder, Int’l Soc. on Infectious Diseases and Human Infertility, USA (1984)
Honorary President, International Pelvic Floor Dysfunction Society, Italy (1996)
Honorary Fellow, Pennsylvania Soc. Colon & Rectal Surgery, USA (1988)
Honorary Fellow, Italian Academy of Proctology, Italy (1989)
Honorary Member, Société Nationale Française de Coloproctologie, France (1983)
Deputy Governor, American Biographical Institute Research Association, USA (1991)
Member, Society for Experimental Biology and Medicine, USA (1986)
Member, American Urological Association (AUA), USA (1982)
Member, Harry Bacon Foundation, USA (1993)
Member, International Gastro-Surgical Club (1986)
Member, New York Academy of Sciences, USA (1989)
Founder, Ahmed Shafik Foundation for Science, Egypt (1993)
Member, American Society of Gastrointestinal Endoscopy, USA (1999)
Affiliate Member, American Society of Colon & Rectal Surgeons, USA (1985)
Member, Society of Endoscopic and Laparoscopic Surgeons of Asia (ELSA) (1997)
Member, Federation of American Societies of Experimental Biology (FASEB)
Member, American Association of Anatomists (AAA), USA (1982)
Member, Egyptian Society of Surgeons, Egypt (1975)
Dormant Memberships
Regent, International Board of Proctology (1984)
Member, Lecturer, Pres Elect, International Academy of Proctology (1979)
Member, Scientific Committee, Ass. Europenne et Mediterranneenne de Coloproctologie,
France (1976)
Member, Scientific Committee, Int’l Journal of Proctology and Perineal Diseases, Italy (1944)
Member, Board of Directors, Rocky Mountains Bioengineering Symposium, USA (1989)
Member, Board of Editors, Molecular Andrology, USA (1983)
Member, Board of Editors, Coloproctology, Germany (1986)
Member, Board of Editors, Paraplegia, Ireland (1989)
Member, Falloppius International Society (1991)
Member, International Urological Association (1982)
Member, Urologists’ Correspondence Club, USA (1986)
Member, American Association for Advancement of Science, USA (1992)
Member, International College of Surgeons (1994)
Member, International College of Surgeons, African Section (1994)
Member, International Society for Preventive Oncology (1992)
Member, American Fertility Society, USA (1982)
Member, Society of Minimally Invasive Therapy, UK (1994)
Member, The International Pelvic Pain Society (1990)
Member, World Academy of Population Sciences, USA (1992)
Founder, Fertility Research Foundation, US (1983)
(Approximate dates)
Shafik was a strong supporter of the International Urogynecologic Association (IUGA) and the International Continence Society (ICS) and was as an invited speaker and active participant in many scientific meetings and workshops. He was a dedicated peer-reviewer for these Journals.
As a vigorous and devoted researcher, Ahmed Shafik has to date added well above 1035 contributions to medical science. He introduced a great number of landmark entries.
Shafik became the personal physician to many dignitaries and world leaders including the Fidel Castro in 1986 in and Moboto Sisisiko of Kinshasa 1987 and others!!!. He was invited to perform his new surgical techniques on patients in many forging countries as USA Germany, Belgium and France.
Over his professional career,Ahmed Shafik authored and
co-authored approximately 500
peer-reviewed scientific articles
and reviews involving experimental
and clinical studies in many fields
of surgery particularly the anatomy
and the patho-physiological
description of colorectal, lower
urinary tract and genital tract
diseases in both males and females.
However, it will be his work in the
area of pelvic floor disorders in
females that will be best remembered
by the readership of this Journal.
His hypothesis was that reverse
interaction and close integration
exists between neighboring pelvic
organs and pelvic floor support
mechanisms that could be related to
their embryological origins. The
distinct feature of his research was
to pilot his project in animal
models then support his findings by
a series of cadaveric dissections to
provide a theoretical rationale for
clinical diagnosis and treatment. He
revisited the gross and microscopic
anatomy of the pelvic floor
musculature and highlighted more
than 100 reflexes that regulate and
coordinate pelvic organ functions
such as urinary and fecal
continence, voiding, defecation and
sexual performance. His monographs
about the pelvic floor became a
constant feature of standard Surgery
and Anatomy texts. His studies
expanded our knowledge on female
urethral, anal canal and sexual
functions and improved our clinical
assessment of urinary and fecal
incontinence, voiding disorders,
constipation, chronic pelvic pain
and sexual dysfunction in women. He
concluded his holistic approach to
pelvic floor research by publishing
the first theory on the pathogenesis
of female stress urinary
incontinence “Common sphincter
concept” in 1984.
Ahmed Shafik was a
master pelvic surgeon who made the
most of his working knowledge on
structural, topographic and applied
anatomy to develop many novel
techniques such as urinary diversion
'Shafik I' in 1964 and orthotopic
bladder transplantation 'Shafik II'
in 1967. He was the first to
describe the “pudendal canal
syndrome” in 1991 caused by
entrapment of the pudendal nerve in
the pudendal canal and pioneered
treatment by surgical decompression
that had relieved intractable pain
and suffering in many patients with
idiopathic proctalgia, scrotalgia,
prostatodynia and vulvodynia.
Erectile dysfunction and fecal
incontinence that are frequently
associated with pudendal neuropathy
also responded favorably to this
line of management. Shafik was fully
aware of new operative procedures in
Urogynecology and with great insight
realized their trans-disciplinary
potential. He investigated the role
of the submucosal connective tissue
of the anal canal in fecal control,
similar to the urethra, and the
value of injecting bulking agents
into the anal submucosa to increase
the resting anal closure pressure in
patients with idiopathic fecal
incontinence. The most promised of
injection techniques he devised is
the very successful submucosal anal
injection which uses the
rectourogental communicating venies
as a new and direct route for drug
administration in pelvic
malignancies (advanced cancer
bladder, prostate, uterus , cervix
and rectum) and at sometime in
inflamatomy conditions of pelvic
organs.
He was elected as the Honorary President for life of the "Society of Perineulogy" in 1999, La Rochelle, France. This was due to his extensive studies on anatomical physiological and pathological work on of the perineum.
Shafik was awarded the Egyptian prize for science and arts, first class, in 1977, and was honored for the best presentation in congress at various Scientific events in 1981.
However, Shafik created also highly effective non-surgical alternatives like nerve stimulation and non- or mini-invasive therapies in an attempt to reduce or even avoid surgical intervention whenever possible. The most prominent of the injection techniques he devised is the very successful submucosal anal injection which uses the rectourogenital communicating veins as a new and direct route for drug administration in pelvic malignancies such as (advanced) cancer of the bladder, prostate, uterus, the cervix, and the rectum.
In his advances in medico- and bio-engineering, Shafik took advantage of simple physical and physiological facts when designing his novel instruments, methods, or apparatuses for diagnostic and surgical purposes in multiple subspecialties. To simplify the procedures of clinical assessment, for example, Shafik took advantage of electric activity, which is generated by the rectum and sigmoid colon, the urinary bladder, kidney, ureters and vas deferens as well as the uterus, oophora and oviducts, esophagus, choledochus, gall bladder and last not least the liver, in order to develop the transcutaneous electrography for their evaluation. Likewise, he introduced the fecoflowmeter for the assessment of the rectal function, and the rectosigmoid pacemaker for the treatment of disordered defecation. In a different line of research, Shafik could produce evidence on the surface of the scrotum of volunteers that polyester briefs generate electrostatic potentials, injurious to the extent that they can act as (reversible) male contraceptives.
Ahmed Shafik had the great personal qualities of all intellectuals: humor, philanthropy, diligence and integrity. Despite his significant contributions to the art and science of pelvic floor medicine, the real legacy and outstanding scholarly achievement ofAhmed Shafik is his ability,
as an apt clinician, to pursue an
academic career whilst working in
the developing world amid the
complex, interrelated and often
poorly understood local problems
that hinder health care research.
These include minimal incentives for
academic clinical career tracks as
opposed to full time clinical
service, shortage of funding and
research infrastructure, limited
access to health informatics and
constrained human resources.
It is the unmerciful truth for all of us that you have passed away so unexpectedly and, certainly, so untimely. Lost forever, I thought. Your absence appeared like a wide gap we would never be able to close or even bridge again. This is what I felt in the first days after you had parted from us.
But then I started realizing that you had not really left us because the gap, as huge as it was, was in truth filled with a powerful, breathtaking heritage you have passed on to us: your scientific yield. A legacy not only representing your way of thinking in every way, or being virtually part of you, no, this legacy is you, full size.
Owing to your uncompromisingly disciplined working system and your unswervingly even pace in perseverance of your goals, you did not waste a single hour of your life without pursuing your specific goals; say observing your experiments or scribbling your notes on the next available envelope like Einstein. You were extremely hard on yourself as you ploughed through virgin and controversial medical issues, day in and day out, and you expected everybody working with you to be as enthusiastic, as involved, as persistent as you were. In your scholarly but unobliging way, you introduced us into your world and allowed us to join you there. You taught us to set apart some time for daily readings so as to keep abreast of publications in the medical literature. Your example taught us that only a well-read physician could not be overrun by developments in medicine, given the rapid changes of trends in our profession. You gave us custody of dozens of your observations and experiences which cannot be found any place in the medical literature. Will I ever be able to thank you for what you gave us?
Ali A. Shafik, MD
Ass. Professor,ment of General Surgery,
Faculty of Medicine, Cairo University
Cairo, Egypt.
Tel: +20-2-37625077
Fax: +20-2-37498851
E-mail: ali@alishafik.com
Shafik served on many national, regional and international organization and association committees and executive boards.
MEMBERSHIPS IN SCIENTIFIC ORGANIZATIONS AND MEDICAL ASSOCIATIONS
Member of Board of Editors or Peer Reviewer
Member, Board of Editors, Frontiers in Bioscience, USA
Member, Board of Editors, Archives of Andrology, USA
Member, Board of Editors, Journal of Investigative Surgery, USA
Member, Board of Editors, Chirurgia, Italy
Member, Board of Editors, Urgentis Chirurgiae Commentaria, Italy
Member, Board of Editors, Advances in Reproduction, USA
Member, Board of Editors, Contraceptive Delivery Systems, USA
Member, Int’l Board of Editors, Italian Journal of Coloproctology, Italy
President Int. Academy of Coloproctology, USA (1986)
President Int’l Society of University Colon & Rectal Surgeons, USA (2004)
Regional Vice President, Int’l Society of University Colon & Rectal Surgeons, USA (1990)
Co-Founder, Hon. President, Mediterranean Society of ColoProctology, Italy (2000)
Co-Founder, Int’l Soc. on Infectious Diseases and Human Infertility, USA (1984)
Honorary President, International Pelvic Floor Dysfunction Society, Italy (1996)
Honorary Fellow, Pennsylvania Soc. Colon & Rectal Surgery, USA (1988)
Honorary Fellow, Italian Academy of Proctology, Italy (1989)
Honorary Member, Société Nationale Française de Coloproctologie, France (1983)
Deputy Governor, American Biographical Institute Research Association, USA (1991)
Member, Society for Experimental Biology and Medicine, USA (1986)
Member, American Urological Association (AUA), USA (1982)
Member, Harry Bacon Foundation, USA (1993)
Member, International Gastro-Surgical Club (1986)
Member, New York Academy of Sciences, USA (1989)
Founder, Ahmed Shafik Foundation for Science, Egypt (1993)
Member, American Society of Gastrointestinal Endoscopy, USA (1999)
Affiliate Member, American Society of Colon & Rectal Surgeons, USA (1985)
Member, Society of Endoscopic and Laparoscopic Surgeons of Asia (ELSA) (1997)
Member, Federation of American Societies of Experimental Biology (FASEB)
Member, American Association of Anatomists (AAA), USA (1982)
Member, Egyptian Society of Surgeons, Egypt (1975)
Dormant Memberships
Regent, International Board of Proctology (1984)
Member, Lecturer, Pres Elect, International Academy of Proctology (1979)
Member, Scientific Committee, Ass. Europenne et Mediterranneenne de Coloproctologie,
France (1976)
Member, Scientific Committee, Int’l Journal of Proctology and Perineal Diseases, Italy (1944)
Member, Board of Directors, Rocky Mountains Bioengineering Symposium, USA (1989)
Member, Board of Editors, Molecular Andrology, USA (1983)
Member, Board of Editors, Coloproctology, Germany (1986)
Member, Board of Editors, Paraplegia, Ireland (1989)
Member, Falloppius International Society (1991)
Member, International Urological Association (1982)
Member, Urologists’ Correspondence Club, USA (1986)
Member, American Association for Advancement of Science, USA (1992)
Member, International College of Surgeons (1994)
Member, International College of Surgeons, African Section (1994)
Member, International Society for Preventive Oncology (1992)
Member, American Fertility Society, USA (1982)
Member, Society of Minimally Invasive Therapy, UK (1994)
Member, The International Pelvic Pain Society (1990)
Member, World Academy of Population Sciences, USA (1992)
Founder, Fertility Research Foundation, US (1983)
(Approximate dates)
Shafik was a strong supporter of the International Urogynecologic Association (IUGA) and the International Continence Society (ICS) and was as an invited speaker and active participant in many scientific meetings and workshops. He was a dedicated peer-reviewer for these Journals.
As a vigorous and devoted researcher, Ahmed Shafik has to date added well above 1035 contributions to medical science. He introduced a great number of landmark entries.
Shafik became the personal physician to many dignitaries and world leaders including the Fidel Castro in 1986 in and Moboto Sisisiko of Kinshasa 1987 and others!!!. He was invited to perform his new surgical techniques on patients in many forging countries as USA Germany, Belgium and France.
Over his professional career,
He was elected as the Honorary President for life of the "Society of Perineulogy" in 1999, La Rochelle, France. This was due to his extensive studies on anatomical physiological and pathological work on of the perineum.
Shafik was awarded the Egyptian prize for science and arts, first class, in 1977, and was honored for the best presentation in congress at various Scientific events in 1981.
However, Shafik created also highly effective non-surgical alternatives like nerve stimulation and non- or mini-invasive therapies in an attempt to reduce or even avoid surgical intervention whenever possible. The most prominent of the injection techniques he devised is the very successful submucosal anal injection which uses the rectourogenital communicating veins as a new and direct route for drug administration in pelvic malignancies such as (advanced) cancer of the bladder, prostate, uterus, the cervix, and the rectum.
In his advances in medico- and bio-engineering, Shafik took advantage of simple physical and physiological facts when designing his novel instruments, methods, or apparatuses for diagnostic and surgical purposes in multiple subspecialties. To simplify the procedures of clinical assessment, for example, Shafik took advantage of electric activity, which is generated by the rectum and sigmoid colon, the urinary bladder, kidney, ureters and vas deferens as well as the uterus, oophora and oviducts, esophagus, choledochus, gall bladder and last not least the liver, in order to develop the transcutaneous electrography for their evaluation. Likewise, he introduced the fecoflowmeter for the assessment of the rectal function, and the rectosigmoid pacemaker for the treatment of disordered defecation. In a different line of research, Shafik could produce evidence on the surface of the scrotum of volunteers that polyester briefs generate electrostatic potentials, injurious to the extent that they can act as (reversible) male contraceptives.
Ahmed Shafik had the great personal qualities of all intellectuals: humor, philanthropy, diligence and integrity. Despite his significant contributions to the art and science of pelvic floor medicine, the real legacy and outstanding scholarly achievement of
It is the unmerciful truth for all of us that you have passed away so unexpectedly and, certainly, so untimely. Lost forever, I thought. Your absence appeared like a wide gap we would never be able to close or even bridge again. This is what I felt in the first days after you had parted from us.
But then I started realizing that you had not really left us because the gap, as huge as it was, was in truth filled with a powerful, breathtaking heritage you have passed on to us: your scientific yield. A legacy not only representing your way of thinking in every way, or being virtually part of you, no, this legacy is you, full size.
Owing to your uncompromisingly disciplined working system and your unswervingly even pace in perseverance of your goals, you did not waste a single hour of your life without pursuing your specific goals; say observing your experiments or scribbling your notes on the next available envelope like Einstein. You were extremely hard on yourself as you ploughed through virgin and controversial medical issues, day in and day out, and you expected everybody working with you to be as enthusiastic, as involved, as persistent as you were. In your scholarly but unobliging way, you introduced us into your world and allowed us to join you there. You taught us to set apart some time for daily readings so as to keep abreast of publications in the medical literature. Your example taught us that only a well-read physician could not be overrun by developments in medicine, given the rapid changes of trends in our profession. You gave us custody of dozens of your observations and experiences which cannot be found any place in the medical literature. Will I ever be able to thank you for what you gave us?
Ali A. Shafik, MD
Ass. Professor,ment of General Surgery,
Faculty of Medicine, Cairo University
Cairo, Egypt.
Tel: +20-2-37625077
Fax: +20-2-37498851
E-mail: ali@alishafik.com