In memory of Gaston Vantrappen, 1927‐2020

Abstract

Gaston Vantrappen passed away on February 11, 2020, in the presence of his wife and family. As the youngest of his mentees, I want to reflect on the significance of his life for the field of Neurogastroenterology and Motiliy. With the passing away of Gaston Vantrappen, the world lost a truly remarkable clinician, mentor and researcher, and a man with great leadership qualities. His dedication to Gastrointestinal Motility, as it was called in his pioneering days, and the way he led the field with innovative concepts, techniques, and approaches continue to resonate up to this day. His passion remains a source of inspiration to all those who had the privilege of working with him. Gaston Vantrappen was born in Welle, Belgium, on October 27, 1927. After obtaining his Medical Doctor Degree at Leuven University in 1953, he specialized in internal medicine at Leuven University Hospital Saint Raphael and Northwestern University Medical School in Chicago. He was appointed staff member in Internal Medicine at Leuven University Hospitals in 1962 and professor of Medicine in 1965 at Leuven University. In 1978, he became chief of the newly created service of Gastroenterology, and in 1979 he became chairman of Internal Medicine in the Leuven University Hospitals. Gaston Vantrappen was a true pioneer of motility research. He was among the first to perform esophageal manometry, and he set the standard for achalasia therapy using pneumatic dilations. In the 1970s and 1980s, achalasia patients came from all over the world to be treated by Prof. Vantrappen. He was also the first to describe the migrating motor complex in man and to demonstrate that its absence was associated with small intestinal bacterial overgrowth. His team unraveled the role of motilin as a trigger for human interdigestive motility and also pioneered ambulatory esophageal manometry and intestinal luminal EMG recording, developed, and validated the first gastric emptying breath test in the 1990s and established erythromycin and other macrolides as prokinetics acting through the motilin receptor. He was internationally very active, contributing with multiple abstracts and presentations to European and International Motility meetings and to Digestive Disease Week of the American Gastroenterology Association. He organized international motility meetings in Leuven in 1975 and 1986, and in Bruges in 1992. He founded the European Society of Neurogastroenterology and Motility in Leuven in 1982, together with Martin Wienbeck, David Wingate, and others. His legacy comprises not only the European Motility Society and his accomplishments in clinical research, but also large numbers of national and international internists and gastroenterologists who trained with him, and the very successful gastroenterology clinical and research unit he created in Leuven. In the motility field, he mentored several researchers who made significant contributions, such as Jan Hellemans, Jozef Janssens, Theo Peeters, Yvo Ghoos, Karel Geboes, Georges Coremans, Gilbert Ghillebert and Inge Depoortere in Belgium, and Salvatore Cucchiara, Raymond Jian, Jiande Chen, Anna Accarino, Daniel Sifrim, Apostolos Mantides, and Vito Annese, among others, internationally. We now had to say goodbye to an exceptional clinician and academic, who is one of the true big contributors to our field. His impact is perpetuated through his research, through the gastrointestinal motility bastion which the Leuven group continues to be, and through the large numbers of privileged clinicians, gastroenterologists and researchers who trained with him.