Dimitri Pournaras is a Consultant in Upper Gastrointestinal and Bariatric Surgery at the North Bristol NHS Trust, UK. He graduated from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece, undertook all his postgraduate training in the UK and completed a PhD in the Department of Investigative Medicine, Hammersmith Hospital, Imperial College London. Following this, he underwent training in laparoscopic oesophagogastric surgery in Cambridge and Norwich, UK. He was granted a Bariatric and Metabolic Surgery Fellowship by the Royal College of Surgeons in Musgrove Park Hospital, Taunton, after which he was appointed to his current position in Bristol.
Dr Pournaras’ clinical interests include surgical treatment of obesity, diabetes as part of multimodal care and laparoscopic upper gastrointestinal surgery. His research interests include outcomes of bariatric and metabolic surgery beyond weight loss, with a focus on obesity associated morbidity and cardiovascular risk. His research activity also includes investigating how bariatric/metabolic surgery changes the way the gut talks to the brain.
He is on the editorial board of the international peer-reviewed journals Obesity Surgery and Clinical Obesity and has authored more than 50 peer-reviewed publications, including articles in TheLancet, TheAnnals of Surgery, The British Journal of Surgery and The BMJ. Dr Pournaras delivers more than 10 invited international lectures on a yearly basis.