There are two important reasons for commencing this new series of publi-
cations entitled "Advances and Technical Standards in Neurosurgery" 1.
the lack of any organized common European postgraduate training system
for young neurosurgeons and 2. the language barriers, which impede the
exchange of neuro- surgical findings in Europe more than in other parts
of the world. The fact that the English language is well on the way to
becoming the international medium at European scientific conferences is
a great asset in terms of mutual understanding. Therefore the Editors
have decided to publish all contributions in English, regardless of the
native language of the authors. All contributions are submitted to the
entire editorial board before publi- cation of any volume. Our series is
not intended to compete with the publications of original scientific
papers in other neurosurgical journals. Our intention is, rather, to
present fields of neurosurgery and related areas in which important
recent advances have been made. The contributions will be written by
specialists in the given fields and will constitute the first part of
each volume.