Prof. Fausto Catena, M.D, PhD, FRCS
Chief, Department of Emergency and General Surgery, Bufalini Hospital, Cesena, Italy
Associate Professor of Surgery, University of Bologna, Italy
Professor Fausto Catena is an internationally recognized surgeon and academic leader in emergency and general surgery. From 2000 to 2011, he served as Consultant General Surgeon in the Department of General, Emergency, and Transplant Surgery at St. Orsola-Malpighi University Hospital in Bologna, Italy, where he developed expertise in trauma surgery, colorectal and oncologic surgery, hernia surgery, kidney transplantation, sarcoma, peritoneal malignancies (HIPEC), and minimally invasive techniques. During this period, he also coordinated renal transplant surgery, peritoneal malignancy and sarcoma surgery programs, and later became coordinator of the Emergency Surgery Unit.
From 2012 to 2021, he was Chief of the Department of Emergency and General Surgery at Parma University Hospital, and since 2021 he has held the same position at Bufalini Hospital, Cesena. In 2024, he was appointed Associate Professor of Surgery at the University of Bologna. He has also been awarded substantive consultant positions in Acute Care Surgery at Southampton University Hospital (UK) and leadership positions in trauma and oncologic surgery at Giovanni XXIII Hospital, Bergamo, and Cesena Regional Hospital, Italy.
Professor Catena has authored over 1,000 scientific papers (more than 500 indexed in PubMed, H-index 71), 50 book chapters, and several key reference books, including the Emergency Surgery Manual, the Trauma Book (2 volumes, Springer), the Acute Care Surgery Book (2 volumes, Springer), the CT Scan in Emergency Surgery Manual (Springer), and the Mass Casualty Incidents Manual (Springer). His research focuses on emergency surgery (acute cholecystitis, adhesions, intra-abdominal infections, trauma), renal transplantation, oncologic surgery (GIST and HIPEC), colorectal disease, and abdominal wall surgery. He has performed more than 4,500 major surgical procedures and has won 25 national and international scientific awards.
He is Editor-in-Chief of the World Journal of Emergency Surgery (Impact Factor 6.0) and serves on the editorial boards of numerous international journals, including Hernia, Antibiotics, International Journal of Clinical Practice, Surgery International, and many others. He is also Managing Editor of Surgery in Geriatric and Frail Patients and Case Reports in Emergency Surgery and Trauma, as well as a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).
Professor Catena has been invited as a speaker to over 300 international congresses, chaired more than 100 sessions, taught in 100 postgraduate courses, and organized around 80 national and international scientific meetings. He has held visiting professorships in multiple countries and is a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons (UK). His leadership roles include Past President of the Italian Society of Young Surgeons, General Secretary of the World Society of Emergency Surgery (WSES), General Secretary of the Italian Society of Surgical Physiopathology, and Executive Committee Member of the Italian Society of Geriatric Surgery.
Recognized as a global authority in emergency surgery, Professor Catena is the primary author of all WSES guidelines and position papers in this field. Since 2021, he has been listed among the Top Scientists of Stanford University, further confirming his standing as a world leader in surgery.
