The series - "A Companion to Specialist Surgical Practice" - is designed to provide trainee surgeons in higher surgical training with an excellent learning and revision resource and busy practicing surgeons with a regular update in a particular sub-specialty interest. Produced to a very tight schedule, each volume in the series gives a current and succinct summary of all the key topics within the specialty and concentrates on recent developments. To meet the increasing interest in evidence-based medicine, authors have cited when ever available, the meta analysis of randomised controlled trials and identified key references within the text which support evidence -based practice. The titles in the series are: "Core Topics in General and Emergency Surgery", Paterson-Brown; "Hepato-biliary and Pancreatic Surgery", Garden; "Colorectal Surgery", Phillips; "Breast Surgery", Farndon; "Endocrine Surgery", Fardon; "Vascular and Endovascular Surgery", Beard and Gaines; "Transplantation", Forsythe; and "Upper Gastrointestinal Surgery", Griffin and Raimes. These titles will also be of interest to physicians who find that the division between their own specialization and an associated surgical specialty is becoming seamless. The book "Core Topics in General and Emergency Surgery" - is intended to meet the needs of the higher surgeon in training and the busy practicing surgeon who needs access to up-to-date information on recent developments, research and data in the context of accepted specialist surgical practice. As with each volume in the series, it provides succinct summaries of all key topics within the specialty and concentrates on the most recent developments and current data. Each chapter has been carefully constructed to be easily readable and provide key references. Written and produced to a tight schedule, "Core Topics in General and Emergency Surgery" is a highly current and convenient resource for both the higher surgeon in training and consultants who wish to keep up to date. It is edited by Simon Paterson-Brown, B.Sc MD FRCS (Ed), Consultant General and Upper Gastrointestinal Surgeon, University Department of Surgery, Royal Infirmary, Edinburgh, UK.