Cholangiocarcinoma is the second most frequent primary neoplasm of the liver and its incidence is increasing in Western countries. These neoplasms arise from the biliary tract and can be categorized according to their anatomical location as intrahepatic and extrahepatic cholangiocarcinomas. The prognosis of these neoplasms is poor and most patients are not suitable for curative resection at the time of diagnosis, due to advanced stage of tumor. Complete surgical resection still remains the only effective and potentially curative therapy. Both intrahepatic and hilar cholangiocarcinoma often requires major liver resection to obtain a radical treatment. In recent years the improvements in non- invasive diagnostic imaging modalities, a better understanding of liver anatomy, the improvements of preoperative optimisation of liver function (preoperative biliary drainage, portal vein embolization), the increased safety of liver surgery have gradually improved the outcome. Moreover, aggressive surgical approach could increase curative surgery. Still now the role of adjunvant therapies and liver transplantation are not well clarified.

This book contains an up-to-date review of diagnostic and staging tools of cholangiocarcinoma, a guide to optimal selection of therapeutic modalities and a review of long-term outcome of surgery and liver transplantation. Moreover, it provides details of surgical techniques and principles for curative and palliative surgery.

This book will appeal to physicians and hepatobiliary surgeons who want to improve their knowledge about surgical management of intrahepatic and hilar cholangiocarcinomas.

This is a novel of journeys, of the paths four people take because their lives are lacking in some significant way. "The devout and the desperate start from different points, but meet along the road", one character says. "In the end, there is no difference in Bethlehem or the bath-houses. Both are pilgrimages that begin and end in faith". Anna has just turned fifty, widowed, estranged from her only child, and embittered by a life that is full on the surface but empty at its core. When her daughter, Poppy, calls after a twelve-year absence and asks if she and her family can visit, Anna reluctantly agrees. Soon after, Poppy's husband and their ten-year-old daughter, Flynn, show up on her doorstep without Poppy, to stay. As a favour to a friend, Anna agrees to help to co-ordinate a support group for HIV patients. On the first day she meets Jack, who must choose between his "considerable appetites" and Stuart, his partner who has been unwaveringly faithful for over a decade. Stuart, in turn, struggles with whether his deep love for Jack will survive the storms ahead. It is Flynn -- imaginative, inspired, and haunted by her convictions about the spirit world -- who becomes the centre of this unlikely but devoted family. Gorgeously written and imbued with wisdom and humour, "Above the Thunder" is a celebration of unexpected connections and the search for home.