Surgical Techniques Illustrated Winter 1976. [antikvár]

Surgeons are great travelers, because no matter how well another surgeon lectures about his methods and no matter how frankly he reveals his secrets and errors, nothing beats a trip to his operating room to see the reality. But since time and money are limiting, no one sees everything he would like. Even when he watches a master at work. It Is a rare and compulsive surgeon whose artistic skills can adequately capture the essential details for later emulation. These are the inadequacies that conventional atlases of surgical technique have traditionally dealt with by asking selected surgeons to describe and illustrate their methods. We expect Surgical Techniques Illustrated to go beyond the conventional. Instead of one surgeon's describing his method for an operation, at least three will contribute their techniques. Instead of surgeons from a single hospital or a single tradition participating, the contributions will be heterogeneous and international. Instead of different artists making the renditions, a small cadre of leaders In medical art will execute all the drawings, coordinated by one Art Editor. Having watched and sketched every operation firsthand, the artists will collaborate with the surgeons until explicit renditions are obtained. The surgeon will then explain in the text accompanying each illustration exactly what he does and why — just as If he were teaching at the operating table. With these innovations, the Editorial and Art Boards are enthusiastic about fulfilling the intention of making Surgical Techniques Illustrated an International comparative text that continually moves with the progress of surgery. Beyond that, we expect also that this publication will be an anatomical atlas helpful to many potential surgeons entering training with limited formal exposure to gross anatomy. The scope of Surgical Techniques Illustrated will be bread-and-butter surgery. It will include the operations within the repertoire of a general surgeon in a first-rate community hospital. Although there will be no cardiac surgery, ophthalmology, or otolaryngology, selected aspects of thoracic surgery will be incorporated. Plastic surgery and orthopedics will be covered to the extent that general surgeons are likely to excise and shift tissues and to deal with simple fractures. Neurosurgical and urologi-cal procedures will be quite restricted. We estimate that ten years will be necessary to cover the fundamental operations implicit in our intent. By that time, if there are no new operations or no alternative ways of doing established ones, surgery will be in a most uninteresting state. To ensure a flux of new ideas, a portion of the Editorial Board will change from time to time. In short. Surgical Techniques Illustrated is intended to be a handbook answering needs that are often spoken, but not so commonly fulfilled: 1. In what single source can I find depictions of alternative ways of doing most general surgical operations ? 2. Where can I find sequential and detailed illustrations of the techniques? 3. Where can I find a text providing instruction in applied anatomy? The vigor with which every invited contributor has so far participated suggests that many surgeons believe these needs are not otherwise being met. R. A. M. Boston