Summary

Over the past 50 years, important developments have taken place in surgical and antimicrobial aspects of the management of intestinal surgery and intra-abdominal sepsis. Many new pathogens like Clostridium difficile, Helibacter and Ruminococcus have been described, and many new beta-lactam drugs and quinolones have been introduced. Immunological aspects such as T cell factors and interleukins have been shown to play an important role in the pathogenesis of intra-abdominal sepsis. Important new pieces of surgical hardware, sutures, and surgical glues to salvage solid organs were added to the surgical armanentorium. This new book looks at all of these important developments and more. Over 900 articles were reviewed to synthesize the core information for this book. The editors' years of experience in trauma surgery and intra-abdominal sepsis add to the tremendous amount of information found in this book written for physicians, house-staff, and medical students.