As Professor Owen H Wangensteen, one of the greatest academic surgeons of the 20th century, said: “You are a true surgeon from the moment you are able to deal with your complications.” Prompt and accurate diagnosis, as well as effective treatment, of surgical complications is one of the most important elements of surgical practice. This is today more important than at any other time, since over the last 20 years we have witnessed the development of new surgical sub-specialties, the performing of complicated operations in very challenging patients, the introduction of new technologies in surgical practice and, last but not least, an increasing interest in monitoring the quality, medico-legal implications, and ethical dimensions of surgical practice and malpractice. As surgical complications have been presented briefly and sporadically in various books and only as a small part of chapters dealing with surgical techniques, there is a pressing need for a modern textbook dealing with the diagnosis, treatment, auditing, medico-legal implications and ethical problems related to surgical complications.Written by internationally known authors, the chapters deal with both the general issues regarding the surgical complications and the specific issues related to each surgical specialty. Each chapter includes: clinical presentation; diagnosis (clinical, laboratory investigations, imaging); treatment (conservative, surgical); and outcome.
