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Background Aiming to clarify the mechanism of weight loss after the restrictive bariatric procedure of sleeve gastrectomy (LSG), the volumes and pressures of the stomach, of the removed part, and of the remaining sleeve were measured in 20 morbidly obese patients. Methods The technique used consisted of occlusion of the pylorus with a laparoscopic clamp and of the gastroesophageal junction with a special orogastric tube connected to a manometer. Instillation of methylene-blue-colored saline via the tube was continued until the intraluminal pressure increased sharply, or the inflated stomach reached 2,000 cc. After recording of measurements, LSG was performed. Results Mean volume of the entire stomach was 1,553 cc (600–2,000 cc) and that of the sleeve 129 cc (90–220 cc), i.e., 10% (4–17%) and that of the removed stomach was 795 cc (400–1,500 cc). The mean basal intragastric pressure of the whole stomach after insufflations of the abdominal cavity with CO 2 to 15 mmHg was 19 mmHg (11–26 mmHg); after occlusion and filling with saline it was 34 mmHg (21–45 mmHg). In the sleeved stomach, mean basal pressure was similar 18 mmHg (6–28 mmHg); when filled with saline, pressure rose to 43 mmHg (32–58 mmHg). The removed stomach had a mean pressure of 26 mmHg (12–47 mmHg). There were no postoperative complications and no mortality. Conclusions The notably higher pressure in the sleeve, reflecting its markedly lesser distensibility compared to that of the whole stomach and of the removed fundus, indicates that this may be an important element in the mechanism of weight loss.

This article discusses dynasties of Jewish practitioners – physicians, for the most part, as well as pharmacists – in the High Middle Ages in Egypt and Syria. Based on reliable Jewish sources, primarily Genizah documents and Muslim Arabic historiographical literature, twenty-four dynasties of Jewish physicians in Egypt and Syria during the Fatimid and Ayyubid periods (1171–1250/60 ce) are surveyed, with a particular focus on five of them in terms of their social and political status within Jewish society and vis-à-vis the Muslim authorities and social elite.

Obscurity surrounds not only the date and name of the inventor of eyeglasses, but also the date and place where eyeglasses (or information pertaining to them) reached the Muslim world. It is assumed that eyeglasses were transmitted to the Muslim world through commerce with Italian traders, which is probable, while other options also present themselves. This paper shows, at any rate, that the date traditionally given for the first acquaintance of the Muslim world with eyeglasses is wrong. In this article, we present evidence that eyeglasses were available in Syria since the fourteenth century and discuss the implications of this discovery.

Mazor attempts to establish the reliability of the historical isnad, and by doing so, to demonstrate that Islamic historiographical tradition indeed existed from the inception of Islam. The present research is based on an examination of the earliest links of the isnads in a number of accounts dealing with the conquest of Syria futuh al-Sham) included in a book compiled by 'Abd Allah Ibn Muhammad Ibn Rabi'a al-Qudami, a scholar who lived in the second half of the second/eighth century and died in the first half of the third/ninth century.

When Obadiah of Bertinoro, the famous commentator on the Mishnah, visited Cairo in February 1488, he mentioned that “the custom of the Jews is always to represent themselves as poor in the country of the Arabs; they go about as beggars, humbling themselves before the Arabs; they are not charitable towards one another.”¹ This and other gloomy observations by travelers who visited Egypt and the Holy Land at that time are usually quoted by modern historians in order to illustrate the severe deterioration in the situation of the Jews in Egypt towards the end of the Mamluk period. Indeed, it

Obscurity surrounds not only the date and name of the inventor of eyeglasses, but also the date and place where eyeglasses (or information pertaining to them) reached the Muslim world. It is assumed that eyeglasses were transmitted to the Muslim world through commerce with Italian traders, which is probable, while other options also present themselves. This paper shows, at any rate, that the date traditionally given for the first acquaintance of the Muslim world with eyeglasses is wrong. In this article, we present evidence that eyeglasses were available in Syria since the fourteenth century and discuss the implications of this discovery.

In the original article, which appeared in the September issue of Obesity Surgery (2008;18:1083–8), author Nachum Beglaibter, M.D. was mistakenly omitted from the list of authors by the submitting author. The order of authors should be: Ronit T. Yehoshua, Leonid A. Eidelman, Michael Stein, Suzana Fichman, Amir Mazor, Jacopo Chen, Hanna Bernstine, Pierre Singer, Ram Dickman, Nahum Beglaibter, Scott A. Shikora, Raul J. Rosenthal, and Moshe Rubin.