Paulo Gustavo Kotze, MD, MSc, PhD

Scott R. Steele, MD, MBA, FACS, FASCRS, FPSCRS (Hon)

Paulo Gustavo Kotze is an Adjunct Senior Professor of Surgery of the Colorectal Surgery Unit at Cajuru University Hospital of the Catholic University in Curitiba, Paraná, Brazil. He received his medical degree at the Federal University of Paraná in 1997 and completed his General Surgery training at the Evangelical University Hospital in Curitiba (2000). He also completed his Senior Fellowship in Colorectal Surgery at the Clinics Hospital from the Federal University of Parana in 2002. Dr. Kotze achieved his Masters' Degree in Surgery at the Catholic University in 2008 and joined the faculty of medicine at the same university in 2011 as an Assistant Professor of Surgery. He achieved his PhD degree studying the influence of biological therapy on surgical outcomes in Crohn's disease at the University of Campinas, in São Paulo, Brazil (UNICAMP) in 2015. Dr. Kotze was also an inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) advanced visiting fellow in the IBD unit at the University of Calgary, Canada (Cumming School of Medicine), for the period of 2017 to 2018. Currently, he serves as a Professor of the Postgraduate Health Sciences Program at the Catholic University of Paraná and Head of the Colorectal Surgery unit at the same university.

Dr. Kotze is an experienced IBD surgeon and author of 3 books, 110 peer-reviewed articles, and multiple book chapters focused on Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis. He has special interest in the fields of biological therapy, epidemiology, and surgery in IBD. He actively participates on the directory board of the Brazilian Study Group for IBD (GEDIIB), and is currently the co-editor of the Journal of Coloproctology (periodical of the Brazilian Society of Colorectal Surgeons), along with participating as an international Editorial Board Member of the Journal of Crohn's and Colitis, Colorectal Disease, Intestinal Research, Therapeutic Advances in Gastroenterology, and Lancet Gastroenterology and Hepatology. He is also a reviewer for several international journals such as Gut, APT, Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Gastroenterology, British Journal of Surgery, among others. Dr. Kotze was formerly a committee member of S-ECCO (surgeons of ECCO) from 2015 to 2018 and is currently a member of the ECCO EDUCOM (educational committee) from 2018 to 2022.

Paulo Kotze has two children, Gustavo (16) and Lorena (11), and has as special hobbies such as fishing with his kids and playing semiprofessional soccer, despite a rupture of his right anterior cruciate ligament in 2019, which almost finished his promising career as a skilled defender. Paulo was also known for his previous musical talent as bass player and his alternative ska and punk rock bands that were quite successful back in the nineties in Brazil.

On behalf of the readers and staff of Clinics in Colon and Rectal Surgery, I sincerely acknowledge Dr. Kotze for serving as a Guest Editor and for providing us with a superb issue on the multidisciplinary management of inflammatory bowel diseases.

Publication History

Article published online:
17 January 2022