This book is edited by a team of experts from across the globe. Kirby I. Bland, MD, is based at the University of Alabama School of Medicine, Birmingham, AL, in the USA, where he is the Fay Fletcher Kerner Professor and Chairman of the Department of Surgery, and the Deputy Director at the Comprehensive Cancer Center. Michael G. Sarr, MD is the James C. Marson Professor of Surgery at the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine in Rochester, MN in the USA. Markus W. Buchler, MD, is a Professor of Surgery and the Chairman of the Department of General and Visceral Surgery at the University of Heidelberg in Germany. Attila Csendes, MD FACS(Hon) is a Professor of Surgery and the Chairman of the Department of Surgery at the University Hospital in Santiago, Chile. O. James Garden, MBChB MD FRCS(Ed) FRCP(Ed) FRACS(Hon), is the Regius Professor of Clinical Surgery at the Department of Clinical and Surgical Sciences at the University of Edinburgh and Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh in the UK. John Wong, BSc(Med(Syd)) MBBS(Syd) PhD(Syd) MD(Hon(Syd)) FRACS FRCS(Edin) FRCS(Glasg) FACS(Hon) is the Chair Professor for the Department of Surgery at The University of Hong Kong and Queen Mary Hospital in Hong Kong, China.