This blue and gold book is the 5th of an original
series,and which
has no equivalent:
Indeed, at a now well established triennial pace, volumes
comprising questions and answers (nearly 2000 so far as of today)
on a precise domain of esophagology, have succeeded one another. They
all revolve around one, single subject, thus dissected, scrutinized,
"atomized" into a shower of fragments, each to be thereafter
enlightened on several dense pages by the synthesis of an individual
opinion, sometimes of lightning revelation.
Each time, the answer goes to the core of the target.
From this kind of encyclopedia which has built itself
up over the passing years, in this most uncommon form, the shape of
a new science, esophagology, has emerged, which did not exist as such
when I founded OESO in 1978.
As far back as that date, the necessity of a polydisciplinary
approach for all the problems posed by the physiology of the esophagus,
by its functional disorders, by its benign or malignant diseases and
their potential correlation, was acknowledged for this particular
organ, a need henceforth widely recognized for other organs.
It is this innovative policy which has enabled OESO to
progressively bring together the enthusiasms of specialists in all
disciplines, clinical or fundamental, from health economists to molecular
biologists, all having accepted to join a work plan established from
the very beginning to extend over more than twenty years.
At that time, they were from several countries in Europe.
Today, they come from 85 different countries, may they
be purely esophageal experts or not, all interested in the studies
regularly undertaken in the framework of OESO and, every three years,
in the World Congress when the research in progress is reviewed, and
the future plotted.
Thus, by its polydisciplinary originality, by its scientific
program developed far in advance, and scrupulously conducted by the
assembly at the highest international level of specialists representing
18 different disciplines, all devoted to a single organ, the esophagus,
OESO has continued to foster its founding particularities. This network
of excellence has progressively acquired since its creation over twenty
years ago, the rank of a worldwide reference in the field of esophagology.
Its Permanent Scientific Committee is its basic guarantee
: it brings together 79 prominent experts coming from 18 different
countries, each one acknowledged as a worldwide authority in his or
her particular domain.
This Committee today represents considerable weight :
that of scientific rigour, and the ensured impetus of measured regular
steps fueled by polydisciplinary eclecticism.
*
This volume is one of the concrete and exemplary aspects
of the achievements of OESO.
It is a rare compiling of clear information, precise
data and superb syntheses of complicated problems, or promising openings
towards new research which design the road to the future.
As usual, one, unique subject, but so vast: the Esophago-Gastric
Junction.
When I drew up the 420 questions which comprises the
table of contents, I sought to discern, in my own realm of surgery
as in all the others, the areas which seemed to me still ill-defined,
to then split them up into numerous small, very small questions.
And to address them, I called on the most renown specialists,
most of them have, today, become my friends: young ones, or not so
young, but all enthusiastic and symbols of enlightened competence,
all of whom accepted, with the eager desire to divulge the heart of
a problem, to take part in the difficult game I requested of them.
Throughout these 1600 pages, the several centimeters
of the Esophago-Gastric Junction progressively disclose many of their
mysteries, be it in the complex realm of their physiology, functional
disorders or pathological lesions, of the most sophisticated investigations
conceived to better understand them, and the latest therapeutical
means to cope with them.
This book is not only addressed to specialists:
On opening it at random, any reader will be afforded
the expert opinion he or she is looking for, the revealing detail
still lacking to clarify a difficult subject, or even, each time from
the most qualified hand, the development of an unexpected question
which will guide his or her own future reflection.
As the Scientific Director of OESO, I express my enthusiastic
pride to receive for my endeavor the daily support of those, the world
over, of the highest caliber, who succeed one another in this book,
to give it its inspiration and lend it the appeal of a truly exceptional
synthesis.
To each one, I extend my most motivated gratitude.
*
As always in the past, Michèle Liégeon
took charge of collecting the texts, of organizing them, of recontacting
authors, and then to reread this book in minute detail, to track down
the uninvited misprint or the slightest flaw which could have detracted
from the page, in order to give to the totality of the volume the
aura of perfection that she seeks in everything.
She is wholly aware of how important her presence is
to me, as to all the functioning of OESO.
How pleased I am to tell her, once again, that this is
a privilege for me.
For the publication of this 5th book, I, once again had
the pleasure of working with
Mr. Gilles Cahn, Directing Manager of John Libbey Eurotext, whose
collaboration I had already enjoyed for one of the preceding volumes.
His enthusiasm, each time renewed, and his meticulous
concern for the quality of the final result, made all the phases of
our working relationship easy.
I am sincerely grateful to him to have so personally
contributed to this new important achievement of OESO.
I would also like to express my motivate gratitude to
Mrs Chantal Vezin, whose ever-present smile accompanied her devoted
contribution to the difficult proof reading of these some 1600 pages.
Janssen Cilag's collaboration with OESO goes back many
years now.
This Firm, synonymous for us all with enlightened competence
in the particular domain of esophagology, has, on many occasions,
been efficiently responsive to our scientific efforts.
Its involvement in the distribution of this book is yet
another concrete display of its profoundly fruitful way to look upon
a partnership.
On behalf of the Permanent Scientific Committee of OESO,
and, I hope, of each of the readers of this volume, I extend to Janssen
Cilag my sincere recognition.
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Robert Giuli, MD, FACS
Professor of Surgery
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