Preface to the 5th edition of European Perspective of Thoracic Surgery
This special issue of the Journal of Thoracic Disease (JTD) represents the fifth edition of a collection of invited lectures presented during the past European Society of Thoracic Surgeons (ESTS) Annual Conference.
Thanks to the commitment and technical assistance of AME editorial Department, this issue has become a tradition to celebrate the past ESTS Annual Meeting and invite colleagues from all over the World to the upcoming meeting.
ESTS has rapidly become the largest organization representing general thoracic surgeons worldwide.
The mission of our Organization is to primarily improve quality in all aspects of our specialty. Education and training are therefore probably the most important aspects of the ESTS activity. For this reason the Society is investing important resources to improve education and make it available to all members and the entire thoracic community worldwide.
The Annual Meeting is certainly the place where the highest standards of scientific education are delivered each year.
The last ESTS Annual Meeting, the 25th of our history, took place in Innsbruck, Austria. More than 1,200 delegates from all over the world attended the Congress, which was a huge success.
This special issue of the JTD is dedicated collects a selection of the most innovative and state of the art invited lectures presented during the 25th ESTS Annual Congress.
It was a pleasure and privilege for the two of us to act as co-editors of this special issue, representing the fifth edition of the European Perspectives in Thoracic Surgery.
We did our best to select what we thought were the most interesting and innovative subjects amongst many outstanding lectures given last year in Austria from world-renown experts in their fields.
Topics include chest trauma and surgical chest wall stabilization; new concepts in immunosuppression for lung transplantation; the indications for use of extracorporeal life support in our specialty; the role of prehabilitation and rehabilitation for thoracic surgical patients; how to get the best from robotic thoracic surgery; and a report on international practice patterns from the ESTS-Venous Thromboembolism working group.
We are deeply indebted to all the authors, who contributed to the realization of the present volume.
This issue is once again dedicated to all surgeons, nurses, physiotherapists and allied health professionals who, with their daily commitment and passion help advance our specialty and assure our patients a high quality of care, a better quality of life and an improved long-term survival.
Acknowledgements
None.
