Morio Kasai | |
|---|---|
葛西 森夫 | |
 | |
| Born | September 29, 1922 |
| Died | December 8, 2008 (aged 86) Sendai, Miyagi Prefecture, Japan |
| Nationality | Japanese |
| Known for | Kasai portoenterostomy |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Surgery |
| Institutions | Tohoku University |
Morio Kasai (葛西 森夫; September 29, 1922 – December 8, 2008) was a Japanese surgeon who had a strong interest in pediatric surgery. While Kasai went into practice at a time when pediatric surgery was not an established subspecialty, much of his clinical and research work was related to the surgical care of children. He is best known for devising a surgical procedure, the hepatoportoenterostomy, to address a life-threatening birth defect known as biliary atresia. The modern form of the operation is still known as the Kasai procedure.
A graduate of the medical school at Tohoku University, Kasai remained there for most of his medical career, chairing the university's 2nd Department of Surgery and serving on the school's Board of Councilors. Though best known for the procedure that came to bear his name, Kasai also studied peritonitis in infants and children, and he made contributions to the understanding of esophageal cancer, pediatric liver cancer and a colon abnormality known as Hirschsprung's disease.
Kasai practiced from the 1940s until 1993, spending the last few years of his career leading a hospital in Tohoku. He suffered a debilitating stroke in 1999 and died in 2008.