FROM THE FOREWORD

The frequencies, varieties, and the interdependence of biliary-pancreatic diseases and their diagnosis and treatment vary in their intensity from the simple to the sublime. Over the years, the number of scientific papers, monographs, textbooks, and surgical atlases on the anatomic, physiologic, and pathologic conditions involving these organs has been encyclopedic. It remained for Walter Hess, George Berci and his associate editors, combined with numerous contributors involving many related specialists, to produce this four-volume text. Its comprehensive dimension is reflected in the mere numbers involved: four volumes, 140 chapters, 38 contributors, 2700 pages, 550 tables, 1100 illustrations and 25,000 references. These statistics are the least impressive feature of this text. Recognizing the importance of the intricate anatomy, the complex physiology, the molecular biology, and the newer implications of genetic and immunologic information leads naturally to the acceptance of the interdependency on the increasing emergence of contributions by gastroenterologists, endoscopists, interventional radiologists, and laparoscopic instruments and their clinical applications. This textbook indicates the rapidity with which increments of knowledge are accumulating in this field and the wisdom of pausing from time to time to ponder the point from which the struggle began, to assess the problems which have been solved , and, especially, to contemplate those which lie ahead.

Kenneth W. Warren, M.D., Boston, Massachusetts