Robotics in General Surgery provides a comprehensive review of the current applications of the robotic platform in all the general surgery subspecialties. Additionally, for each subspecialty it serves as a procedure-oriented instruction manual in terms of technical details of procedures, including fundamentals of robot positioning and trocar placement, step-by-step description of procedures, comprehensive discussions of advantages, limitations, indications, and relative contraindications of using the robotic approach. The text also discusses the challenges and steps to overcoming these challenges in transitioning from a minimally invasive to a robotic practice/surgeon. Lastly, this volume addresses emerging technology in robotics and the impact that the robotics platform will have on not only practice of surgery, but also in the education of surgeons at all levels. Written by experts in the field of robotic surgery, Robotics in General Surgery is a valuable resource for general surgeons of all levels including residents, fellows and surgeons already in practice.

In this issue of Atlas of the Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Clinics, guest editor Dr. Florencio Monje Gil brings his considerable expertise to the topic of Temporomandibular Joint Surgery. TMJ disorders affect 12% or more of the population in the U.S. alone, primarily women in their childbearing years. In this issue, top experts in the field provide comprehensive, current tutorials of every major TMJ surgery, including articles on pre- and postoperative treatment. Contains 14 practice-oriented topics including rules for surgical decision making in temporomandibular joint treatment; temporomandibular joint arthrocentesis; operative arthroscopy and electrocoagulation of the temporomandibular joint; open temporomandibular joint surgery: discectomy with or without interpositional reconstruction; temporomandibular joint surgery: open discopexy; and more. Provides in-depth clinical reviews on temporomandibular joint surgery, offering actionable insights for clinical practice. Presents the latest information on this timely, focused topic under the leadership of experienced editors in the field. Authors synthesize and distill the latest research and practice guidelines to create clinically significant, topic-based reviews.

This book addresses the background and significance of the factors potentially influencing the clinical and biological outcomes of metal-on-metal hip implants.Metal-on-metal bearings were introduced and evaluated as an alternative to other bearing couples, particularly metal-on-polyethylene, due to their enhanced wear resistance as determined in laboratory testing.Initially, reports of short-term clinical outcomes were favorable and an increasing number of metal-on-metal prostheses were implanted. Subsequently, isolated case findings describing adverse tissue responses around the articulation became the harbinger of an increasing number of reports describing pseudotumors and other significant lymphocytic-based responses associated with metal-on-metal prostheses. Questions have been raised as to whether this is an implant, design, or patient-specific response. The reasons why some patients have a negative biological response and pathology while others do not remain to be determined, but tens of thousands of patients in the US, the UK, and around the world are considered to be at risk. Leading researchers and clinicians describe the issues related to the nature of the biological and pathological responses and the protocols that should be followed to determine if an adverse response is occurring. This book is essential reading for researchers, engineers, and orthopaedic surgeons who are involved in the design, evaluation, and implantation of metal-on-metal prostheses."

Volume 13: Pineal, Pituitary, and Spinal Tumors is organized in six sections, for convenience and quick access to critical information. Section I, Types of Tumors includes a chapter on molecular characterization of Embryonal tumors, a chapter on diagnosis of metastatic oligodendroglioma using fine-needle aspiration cytology, one covering intra-arterial chemotherapy of oligodendroglial tumors and another on the role of cyclooxygenase-2 in the development and growth of Schwannomas, and others, closing with a chapter on trigeminal neuralgia with cerebellopontine angle tumors. Section II, Diagnosis, includes two chapters on cell counting in histopathologic slides of tumors. Section III offers three chapters which discuss aspects of intraoperative ultrasonography. Section IV covers brain tumor surgery, and Section V surveys Brain Metastasis. The final section offers a wide-ranging review of General Diseases, with chapters on, among others, Alexander Disease; Lipoma; Transplantation of human umbilical cord blood mononuclear cells in cases of neonatal hypoxic-ischemic brain damage; and a chapter discussing the use of mobile phones and brain cancer risk in children. Like its twelve predecessors in the series, this volume merits distinction for its thorough approach, its roster of 78 distinguished contributors representing 14 different countries and its detailed examination of leading-edge technology and methods.

This book provides a concise summary across all aspects of endocrine surgery, covering the major endocrine organs and discussing aspects of surgical care. It comprises five sections covering the major endocrine organs/systems, each with a specialist section editor. Within each section there are a number of brief (2-3 page) chapters, written in a combination of prose and bullet points, a format that is conducive to both detailed reading and quicker, "dipping in", review. Each chapter contains a "Pearls and Pitfalls" summary box. The text takes into account the latest evidence and current expert opinion from an internationally renowned list of authors.

Magnesium Biomaterialsprovides a succinct up-to-date overview of Magnesium biomaterial development, critically examines the types of in vitro experiments that may be performed, and investigates the numerous variables that affect Magnesium biodegradation when undertaking these experiments. This work also discusses the direction in which current Magnesium biomaterial development is heading and the necessary steps for future development of this field. Information is drawn from numerous multi-disciplinary sources to provide a coherent and critical overview. Magnesium Biomaterialsis ideal for researchers in thearea of bio-Mg, companies interested in exploring their own alloys, and for researchers working with other biodegradable materials who are seeking a cross-platform understanding of material performance."

Hip Magnetic Resonance Imaging presents a basic yet comprehensive discussion of the role and use of MRI in the diagnosis and treatment of injuries and diseases of the hip, highlighting common concerns and procedures. Beginning with the principles of MRI and dGEMRIC and moving on to normal and abnormal hip anatomy, the focus shifts to the MRI techniques used in the detection of disease conditions of the hip, including labral disease, osteonecrosis, extra-articular conditions and cartilage damage. Chapters on the utilization of biochemical imaging biomarkers in the treatment of hip disorders round out the text. Written by experts in radiology and orthopedics and generously illustrated with MRI radiographs, this book will be an important reference work for clinicians in those fields, as well as practitioners of sports medicine and primary care physicians.

Surgical Management of Benign Esophageal Disorders: The "Chicago Approach" covers all stages of the diagnosis and treatment of the most common benign esophageal disorders in a concise and easy-to-read format.Indications, patient preparation, operative techniques, and strategies for avoiding and managing complications are included and based both on evidence-based data and the experience of the most famous esophageal surgeons in the United States and abroad. Each chapter includes a summary of the current management strategy for the disease process, and a review of current state of the art techniques provided by world leaders on esophageal disease, surgeons and gastroenterologists alike. A special emphasis is given to emerging procedures in laparoscopy, thoracoscopy, and endoscopy. Surgical Management of Benign Esophageal Disorders: The "Chicago Approach" is illustrated throughout with line diagrams that depict fundamental anatomic or technical principles and is a valuable resource for surgeons and gastroenterologists in residence and training.

Clinical lung transplantation has seen an early start within the history of solid organ trans plantation, marked by the 1963 first lung transplant by James D. Hardy. This was prompted by the seemingly easy way of joining the transplanted organ to the recipient by me ans of a few well-defined anastomoses, i.e. bronchus, pulmonary artery and pulmonary vein carry ing left atrial cuff. The following decade thus witnessed a number of such mostly unilateral lung transplants in several centres, in Germany represented by the two only lung transplants performed by E. S. Bucherl, then at the Neukolln City Hospital in Berlin in 1969. As with most other such attempts these two patients suffered early and lethai graft failure. There was only one single lung transplant patient who lived up to ten months after the transplant at Gent, Belgium, having been operated on by Derom in 1969. The alm ost universal failure during this initial phase was attributed to bronchial anasto motic insufficiency, pulmonary infection of either the transplanted lung or the left-in-place contralateral lung and a far-reaching lack of knowledge how to cope with transplant rejec tion. In the early 1970s it had become gene rally accepted that lung transplantation could not be performed successfully."

Laparoscopy is a new frontier of the surgical technique, which recently gained more and more popularity and credit upon the surgical teams, also in Urology. The reason stays in the reduced invasivity and in the advances on the techniques of "video-assisted surgery." More recently the retroperitoneal access to laparoscopy surgery ("retroperitoneoscopy" or "retroperitoneal laparoscopy") opened a new surgical approach to several diagnostic and operative procedures for a large number of urogenital tract diseases. The applications in pediatric and in adult age and the technical challenges are widely debated at the moment. The volume gathers contributions by internationally renowned authors and is a complete overview of the technique. The book addresses urologists, general and abdominal surgeons, pediatric urologists and pediatric surgeons who are interested in minimally invasive procedures and particularly in retroperitoneal laparoscopy.

In this text atlas of neuroimaging the author provides a review of the pathologies and diseases that affect the head, brain, skull base, face, spine, and cord. The case presentation format of this handbook covers the important clinical and neuropathological aspects of the disease process. The book contains 350 selected pathologies, represented in 750 high resolution MR images. It also covers the aspects of neurological disorders and the fundamental aspects of the physics of magnetic resonance, spectroscopy, as well as a review of MR techniques. Given its scope, this book is of interest to radiologists involved in MR interpretation, neuroradiologists seeking an up-to-date review, and all workers in the field of diagnostic and therapeutic neurology.

A research project entitled Biomechanics of Structure and Function of Living Cells, Tissues, and Organs was launched in Japan in 1992. This data book presents the original, up-to-date information resulting from the research project, supplemented by some of the important basic data published previously. The aim of collecting the information is to offer accurate and useful data on the mechanical properties of living materials to biomechanical scientists, biomedical engineers, medical scientists, and clinicians. The data are presented in graphs and tables (one type of data per page) arranged in an easily accessible manner, along with details of the origin of the material and the experimental method. Together with its two companion volumes, "Biomechanics: " "Functional Adaptation and Remodeling" and "Computational" "Biomechanics," the Data Book on Mechanical Properties of Living Cells, Tissues, and Organs is a timely and valuable contribution to the rapidly growing field of biomechanics.

This book covers the molecular and cellular aspects of cancer metastasis, and discusses the clinical aspect of micro- and macro-metastases, which result in the death of the majority of patients with cancer. The current edition attempts to examine the current status of the basic scientific and clinical research in the area, and is a very useful reference for clinicians, oncologists, and biologists. It is intended for undergraduates as well as postgraduates in the area of medicine, oncology, and cancer biology.

Vascular pathology is essentially based on a transverse, the main basic lesions, this book provides precise multi-organ approach to pathology. It has been the descriptions in all of the main areas : atherosclerotic, subject of only a few reference works as it tends to be inflammatory, dysplastic, and traumatic diseases, etc. ignored by organ specialists. However, the vascular Throughout this book, the lesions are precisely system is widely distributed in all tissues ; it is modelled described with identification of the various recognized very early during organogenesis by haemodynamic syndromes and discussion of the main established factors, it possesses a remarkable reactivity and pathophysiological interpretations, together with a plasticity, and it is involved in a large number of complete bibliography. pathological processes. General pathologists are often poorly equipped to interpret morphological features We hope this book, based on the authors' medical and encountered during histological examination and to scientific knowledge, has the success it deserves. We integrate these findings into a rational approach. would like to thank them for giving us a very well documented book, which will be useful to both This book by Doctor Phat N. VUONG and Professor students and experienced pathologists.

Why write a book on the tourniquet? The tourniquet is used routinely in op- ating theatres throughout the world, but as far as I know there is no single book that surveys the considerable literature that has accumulated. If used sensibly, the tourniquet is a safe instrument. Most of the few complications seen with its use are preventable. However, when something untoward happens, the tour- quet suddenly becomes an interesting subject, particularly if there is the likelihood of medicolegal consequences. This book summarises the scientific background of the tourniquet and describes a safe physiological approach to preventing complications. Examples of medicolegal problems are included. Considerable progress had been made since Lister first excised a tuberculous wrist joint in a bloodless field. Many researchers have studied the effects of ischaemia and pressure on nerves and muscles. Tourniquets have entered the age of computers and are now much more sophisticated. Despite this, there is still much dogma surrounding the tourniquet in operating theatres and in textbooks. This book is aimed at orthopaedic surgeons, anaesthetists and op- ating-theatre staff. I hope that this short text will stimulate a more widespread interest in the tour- quet and improve safe practice.

Cardiac surgery has developed dramatically since the first open-he art operations were performed in the mid 1950s. Although the improvement of surgical technique, extracorporeal circulation, and postoperative management has contributed to a marked reduction of morbidity and mortality, the development of cardiac surgery to its present state would not have been possible without blood substitution by homologous donor blood. Only 20 years ago, open-heart operations required an average of 8 units of blood preserves. The excessive need of donor blood in those early days was mainly due to premature surgical technique, insecure control of anticoagulation, severe blood trauma by extracorporeal circulation, and the lack of retransfusion technologies that would have allowed the reuse of shed mediastinal blood. The introduction of new technologies, such as normovolemic hemodilution, in traoperative autotransfusion, postoperative return of shed mediastinal blood, and predonation of autologous blood has greatly reduced donor blood requirements. At present the majority of routine coronary artery surgical procedures can be performed without any blood transfusion. Blood loss, however, may be considerable in patients undergoing complex valve surgery or reoperations, as they often require several units of transfused blood. Blood conservation has now become an area of major interest for the cardiac surgeon. This increased concern is caused by infectious complications of blood transfusion, in particular hepatitis and, more recently, AIDS."

Rejection and Tolerance is the latest subject in the Continuing Education series, organized by Fondation Marcel Merieux and Universite Claude Bernard in Lyon. The annual subject is chosen to reflect the status of the topical issues of the year, as taught by leading international experts. The contribution of transplantation and clinical immunology to advanced medicine is considerable and promising. The annual volumes in this series keep the reader abreast of these developments. "

Contents: The Use of Immunohistochemistry: Present and Future - The Expression of Vimentin in Epithelial Neoplasms - Morphologic Manifestations of Malignant Lymphomas in the Spleen. A Histologic and Immunohistochemical Study of 500 Biopsy Cases - Demonstration of Epstein-Barr Viral Genomes in Routine Paraffin Sections of Lymphoproliferative and Epithelial Lesions by in Situ Hybridization - Carcinoma of the Lung;Changing Sex Distribution and Histopathologic Cell Types - Pulmonary Pathology in Lung Transplant Patients - Bronchiolitis Obliterans with Organizing Pneumonia and Constrictive Bronchiolitis: Comparative Analysis ofTwo Distinct Entities - Lymphoid Interstitial Pneunomia in HIV Infected Individuals. Long-Term Clinicopathologic Observations in 52 Patients and Pathogenesis - Genital Human Papillomavirus (HPV) Infections and Their Associations with Squamous Cell Cancer: Reappraisal of the Morphologic, Epidemiologic and DNA Data - Central and Peripheral Bronchial Carcinoids Possess Distinct Peptide Immunostaining Patterns - Diagnosis of Rhabdomyosarcomas with Particular Reference to Immunohistochemical Markers - Borderline Lesionsof the Gastric Epithelium: New Indicators of Cancer Risk and Clinical Implications - The Pathology of Secondary Human Yolk Sac in Spontaneous Abortion: Findings in 103 Cases

M. BENcovA Slovak Foundation Education in Immunogenetics Kopanice 25, 821 04 Bratislava Slovak Republic Short History of Slovakia After the end of the 5th century, the major part of Central Europe was dominated by Slavs (Slovaks). They had already in the 7th century settle ments in the vicinity of towns Bratislava, Devin, Nitra to create the Slovak's state formation with the name "The Empire of Sam", territory of which corresponded to that of Slovakia of present. The Empire of Sam was also the first state formation in the Central Europe (as present states Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, Slovakia etc. ) Very important town of this state was Nitra, with the biggest Castle in the Central Europe with his Duke Pribina. The first Church of the Central Europe was built here in the year 830, and it is now considered to be the "Slovak Bethlehem". In the year 880, Nitra also became the first Office of Bishops. Later, the Slovak Duke Pribina and Moravian Duke Mojmir (Moravia corresponded to eastern part of the present Czech Republic) joined their formations to common state "Greate Moravian Empire". The strongest King of the Great Moravian Empire was Svatopluk (864 A. D. ), who spread his empire over Czech Republic, Hungary and part of Poland, Ukraine and eastern Germany of present, which at that time still did not exist as state formations.

Medical Applications of Microcomputers deals with microcomputer applications in a wide area of clinical medicine. Recent developments are discussed in several clinical specialties including medicine, surgery, urology, anaesthesia and oncology. Topics include the storage of analysis of clinical audit data, the display of processing of data from direct physiological measurements and computers in control of therapy. The authors draw on their practical experience and knowledge of specific areas to which they have applied modern microcomputer techniques and give detailed descriptions of the means by which the problems that may be encountered may be overcome. Those wishing to implement their own computer systems will find this book a useful further source of ideas and techniques which add to those described in the earlier volume "Microcomputers in Medicine" by the same editors.

This volume contains 121 representative works on hydrocephalus which are collected from 24 listed journals and books in the field of neuroscience published in 1988. We express OUf sincere thanks to all authors, listed publishers and editorial boards for their cooperation and permission on this publication. It isour pleasure ifthis book willprovide you with an up-to-date review of the works on hydrocephalus. The editors ACKNOWLEDGMENT Greatful acknowledgments for permission to reproduce copyright material are made to the editors and the publishers listed below: Acta Neurochirurgica: Springer-Verlag, Wien American Journal of Neuroradiology (AJNR): American Roentgen Ray Society American Journal of Psychiatry: The American Psychiatrie Association Archives of Neurology: American Medical Association Brain and Development: (Official Journal) The Japanese Society of Child Neurology Brain Research: Elsevier Science Publishiers B. V. Child's Nervous System: Springer-Verlag, Berlin CT Kenkyu/Progress in Computerized Tomography: Neuron Publishing Co. Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry: British Medical Journal Journal of Neurosurgery: The American Association of Neurological Surgeons Journal of Pediatric Neurosciences: Springer-Verlag, Heidelberg Journal of Pediatric Surgery: Grune & Stratton, Inc. Nervenarzt: Springer-Verlag, Berlin Neurologia Medico Chirurgica (Tokyo): (OfficialJournal) The Japan Neurosurgical Society Neurology: Modern Medicine Publications, Inc.

Despite the significant decline in heart disease mortaht>' rates over the last 25 years, heart failure has remained a significant problem. We are now confronted with large numbers of terminally ill patients for whom conventional therapies for heart failure have been exhausted and for whom repeated hospital visits are necessary. There now is a major thrust towards a management strategy which embraces a comprehensive approach including vigorous preventive measures and earlier surgical interventions. This book outlines the major surgical options for the treatment of heart failure and brings together a very broad base of opinions with contributions from several outstanding individuals. With the improved knowledge and techniques to control rejection, transplantation has become the central pillar in the surgical management of this group of patients. Unfortunately, because of limited donor supply the teclmique cannot be applied to large numbers of patients. A great deal of excitement, however, exists in the potential for xenotransplantation as a supplement to homotransplantation. The use of cardiac assist devices has become a reality with several hundred LVADS and BiVADS implanted throughout the world and cardiac replacement with total artificial hearts continues to be used successfully as a bridge to transplantation. We are on the thieshold of the broad application of assist devices to provide prolonged relief of heart failure and restore patients to an ambulatoiy home environment and hopefully return to the work force in significant numbers.

Epilepsy surgery is defined as any neurosurgical intervention whose pri- mary objective is to relieve medically intractable epilepsy (European Fed- eration of Neurological Societies Task Force 2000). The aim of epilepsy surgery is to reduce the number and intensity of seizures, minimise neuro- logical morbidity and antiepileptic drug (AED) toxicity, and improve quality of life. By definition, epilepsy surgery does not include normal surgical treatment of intracranial lesions where the primary goal is to di- agnose and possibly remove the pathological target, often an advancing tumour. In these patients, epileptic seizures are only one symptom of the lesion and will be treated concomitantly as part of the procedure. Temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) is recognised as the most common type of refractory, focal epilepsy. In one third of all cases the neuronal systems responsible for the seizures that characterise this form of epilepsy fail to respond to currently available AEDs (Andermann F 2002). New imaging methods, especially magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), identify localising abnormalities in an increasing proportion of patients with intractable focal epilepsy. Consequently, the accuracy of the preoperative diagnostic pro- cedures has been significantly improved during the last decade; and suit- able candidates for surgery can be selected more reliably. Currently the main resources in most epilepsy surgery centres have been used to evaluate candidates for TLE surgery.

This text examines the dominant ways of looking at patient/clinician relationships in healthcare. By challenging these dominant views the author can explore presuppositions that are defective. She further explains how they come to be so readily and uncritically held and reinforced; and, why their implications can have such a profound affect on how we think and act. Using the methodology of philosopher, John Dewey, the author proposes an alternative bio/psycho/social approach to understanding the patient/clinician relationship and for resolving increasingly common bioethical issues that arise in healthcare settings.

The events of September 11,2001 in the United States will always be r~membered with horror and sadness but also admiration for those who risked, and often lost, their lives attempting to save others. When the Fifth International Germ Cell Tumour Conference began, the US air space was closed and our American friends were unable to join us. We were faced with a programme that now had many gaps. What happened next was an illustration of the sense of community that prevails at the Germ Cell Tumour Conferences. Some of those who could not be there in person, such as Richard Foster and Craig Nichols, sent their slides by email, and we were indebted to those, such as Michael Jewett, Ben Mead and Malcolm Mason, who stepped into the breach to present them. Others gave impromptu, and often thought provoking, talks. The discussion periods were lively and it will come as no surprise to those who regularly attend the meeting that Tim Oliver won the prize for "Most Questions Asked", managing even to ask questions following his own presentations. The quality of the talks was outstanding. There was closer integration of the adult and paediatric sessions than in previous meetings. As a result, the differences and similarities between adult male, female and paediatric germ cell tumours became more apparent. This cross-fertilization of ideas from different groups will no doubt lead to further advances. As a result of all these efforts, the conference was a great success.