J.J.A.M. van Dongen Photographic Atlas of Reconstructive Arterial Surgery

Annotation

Direct surgery on arteries was born at the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth century. However, it was only during the last twenty-four years, that this new chapter of clinical surgery could be weil established, owing to diverse kinds of minds and hands. The result is that limbs, organs, functions, and lives have since then been saved in increasing numbers. We may now consider that the main impulse of this new phase is over. But the material of wh ich the chapter was built is still defective, incomplete, or inadequate, and therefore surgeons and many other men will still have to spend a lot of sagacity and vigour to give this chapter its proper arrangement. Principles evolve, methods are modified as a result of technical progress, surgeons' solid opinions on a particular matter give way to other distinct but equally solid opinions on the same matter. These are the reasons why the moment we are living in is a wonderful one. As always in Iife, the great flame burns more intensely when one finds himself at the verge of attaining so me proposed design. The first phase of dream and failure has given way to a more structured ground on wh ich the final battle must be fought. Such a battle is taking place right now.