Increasingly, surgery is also a global endeavor. It is common for surgeons to train and practice in many cities and frequently many countries. In the goal of pursuing what is best for their patients, surgeons will travel far and wide to obtain the requisite skills needed to ensure a positive outcome.

The book sits at the crossroads between the personal and global nature of surgery. The distinguished international editorial board and authors have been carefully assembled to give a view of surgical fundamentals and advanced practice that is not possible in a single city, institution or even country. The lessons taught are universal and are valuable to surgeons everywhere. Each reader of the book is a student of the art of surgery in some way—from a junior medical student on their first rotation to the department, chair in-charge of a major national organization. Each will find something to learn here.

In many ways, the editor-in-chief of this book personifies the lofty goals of the book. Dr Dinesh Vyas' surgical journey began in India, and has found its way through England, France, and the United States, where I was fortunate to work to have him work in my laboratory studying surgical critical care. He brings a perspective that is at once global and at the same time, highly personal. This has led to a book that I believe will be instructive from the most rural communities with a single general surgeon to the most highly specialized academic centers.

I offer my most sincere congratulations to the editors and contributors for putting together this enlightening and comprehensive book.

Comprehensive Textbook of Surgery has been written keeping in mind the disconnect between currently available surgery textbooks and the resources available in the most hospitals in the world. The target audience is medical students, nursing students, surgery residents and surgeons. With simple, easy-to-understand language, it is meant to be an easily accessible resource for surgeons regarding practical advice on the best care available at the present time. A group of six distinguished and accomplished editors with more than thirty contributors have made contributions regarding basic and new surgical diseases, options for diagnosis and treatment of disease processes with the resources avialable to you, the pros and cons of various treatment options, and the management of complications. Emphasis is on common surgical related issues in critical care with chapters on cardiology, renal and infectious diseases. There is an introduction to use of radiology in your practice and a thrust towards lesser invasive interventions with readily available ultrasound machines.

Comprehensive Textbook of Surgery emphasizes trauma management and care. As a surgeon, I have a huge responsibility towards ensuring timely and appropriate care of trauma patients with a systematic approach. The potential for improvement in the care of trauma patients is significant. A textbook such as this is well overdue and will be a refreshing addition to the current cadre of textbooks in this arena.

Surgeons like any physician are overwhelmed with information and at every stage it is important for them to understand and prioritize their reading. In surgery, there are multiple textbooks that have served to some extent all surgeons, but again they leave a lot of areas of question, as the surgeons have lack of global exposure.

I am fortunate to have surgeons from all parts of globe contributing in this text and all are active in their surgical practice at the best institutes of the world.

I wholeheartedly appreciate the efforts of all the editors and contributors of the textbook. There are many others in the publishing that have enabled me to successfully complete this mission. Professor Nav Yash Gupta and Professor Vijay Mittal have been constant support, inspiration and guide in my mission and helped with contributions and editing. I am thankful to the editorial staff and management especially Mr Tarun Duneja (Director-Publishing) and Mr KK Raman (Production Manager), M/s Jaypee Brothers Medical Publishers (P) Ltd, New Delhi, India were extremely helpful with their support and assistance throughout the project.

Lastly, I acknowledge the everlasting strength, support, and vision of my life, Arpita, my mother, Shyama and my daughter, Anoushka for their patience, nurturing personal environment to enable me to complete this vision.

This work is just a start and I have more work in my hand and I think the current team made me more determined to take challenging task and complete them with ease in future.14