Summary

Esophagus
View from many angles into the mirror of experience of the Olomouc esophageal school

Miloslav Duda et al.

Motto:
„Every physician has his favorite organ and disease.“

 

The monograph summarizes fi ndings regarding diagnosis and treatment of a wide range of diseases of the esophagus. Th e tradition of esophageal surgery was established in Olomouc by Professor Vladislav Rapant in 1945 and has since been
maintained by four generations of surgeons. It is therefore not an exaggeration that the authors refer to the Olomouc esophageal school and address its contribution to esophageal surgery. Th e work contains a complete Olomouc bibliography of publications concerning the esophagus, which up to 2012 contains 305 publications and also a list of 68 works about esophageal varices. Short biographies of signifi cant fi gures from Olomouc esophageal surgery, references of interdisciplinary and international cooperation of Olomouc surgeons and information regarding the development of
specialization of this medical discipline are also included. Despite the monograph being written predominantly by surgeons, it is not restricted to only this viewpoint; all chapters also comprise at least general fi ndings from other specializations, which create the subspecialization of esophagology. Attention is placed on the historical aspects of the reviewed subject, because it is a known fact that ignorance of historical development oft en leads to unnecessary researching and testing of that which has already been researched and tested. A special part of the work contains chapters regarding the anatomy and physiology of the esophagus, clinical examination, diagnosis, congenital diseases of the esophagus, hiatal hernias, esophageal refl ux disease, other causes of infl ammation of the esophagus, neuromuscular diseases of the esophagus, esophageal diverticula, esophageal tumors, trauma to the esophagus, esophageal varices and portal hypertension, and other rare diseases of the esophagus.

In addition, these chapters address modern methods used in esophageal surgery with reference to the electronical version of the work, where a large number of video sequences illustrating diagnostic and minimally invasive treatment procedures for
individual diseases are available. Th e fi nal chapters summarize a look at Evidencebased medicine and evaluating quality in esophageal surgery, and provide a look into the future of esophageal surgery.