Dr. Joseph Gaster; Pioneered Laparoscopic Surgery

Dr. Joseph Gaster, 89, pioneer in laparoscopic and other surgery requiring little hospitalization. One of his best-known patients helped illustrate Gaster’s new techniques in 1967. That was Los Angeles Mayor Sam Yorty, who got out of bed an hour after Gaster performed hernia surgery on him and returned to City Hall a day later. That same year, Gaster told a meeting of the California Medical Assn. that his streamlined hernia-repair procedure, requiring only local rather than general anesthesia, reduced complications from the surgery and recurrence of hernias. He said his procedure enabled people to return to work within three days. In 1970, Gaster wrote a book titled “Hernia: One-Day Repair.” Born in New York City, Gaster earned his degrees at Cornell University. He served in the Army during World War II and then moved to Beverly Hills as an abdominal surgeon in 1944. Gaster was associated with Kaiser Foundation Hospitals and the Brotman Memorial Hospital in Culver City and taught and practiced from 1950 until 1968 at Loma Linda University Medical School. He was also a major supporter of Jewish causes and higher education, and in 1987 traveled to Jerusalem to dedicate the Gaster Building on the Mt. Scopus campus of Hebrew University. On Sunday in Los Angeles.