In most parts of the world the treatment of adults with surgically correctable abnormalities of the thorax and its contents is provided by specially trained thoracic surgeons. On the other hand, in children pediatric general surgeons usually take on this role because of their training in the surgical care of sick infants and children, and their experience with the management of congenital malformations. In an ideal world the treatment of surgical disorders of the thorax in children would be provided by a super specialist, but this is neither practical nor possible. This text provides information that will help bridge the gap for a group of conditions often only encountered rarely by otherwise experienced surgeons. This book is not designed to be a textbook of operative surgery. Instead the broad scope is to provide important up to date information and reference material relating to most of the thoracic surgical conditions seen in childhood. The editors and contributors have ably met their goal to give the reader the proper medical and surgical principles needed to treat these childhood conditions. One can't help to note the impressive array of authors from around the world. When I first started out in pediatric surgery only a few pediatric surgeons in a few centers would dare tackle some of the abnormalities noted in these chapters. Others who dared, because they had no other choice, often failed. Now it is clear that globalization has truly come to our discipline.
