Adib Jatene

Adib Domingos Jatene (1929 to 2014) was a Brazilian physician and thoracic surgeon of Lebanese descent. He was born in Xapuri in the state of Acre to Lebanese immigrant parents, grew up in Uberlândia and São Paulo, and graduated from the University of São Paulo Faculty of Medicine, after which he trained in cardiac surgery at the university hospital under Euryclides de Jesus Zerbini. He is remembered as the inventor of the arterial switch operation, sometimes called the Jatene arterial switch, a technique for correcting transposition of the great vessels in newborn infants. He was one of the founders of the University of São Paulo Heart Institute, served as health secretary of the city of São Paulo and as Brazil's Minister of Health under two presidents, and published more than 270 scientific studies.