This book - the first multicenter book on orthotopic liver
transplantatio- reflects the progress in this field. The first
'experience in hepatic transplantation' was documented in 1969 by Starzl
and his group in Denver in the classic of the same name. It was followed
in 1983 by 'Liver transplantation', edited by Caine, in which the
experience of the Cambridge-King's College Hospital team was laid down.
Apart from these the book of Lie and Giitgemann appeared in 1974. These
books are fundamental for all who want to become involved with
experimental and clinical liver transplantation. Developments in liver
transplantation are fast (faster than the production of this book) and
new knowledge now not only is coming from the pioneer centers but also
from their off-spring, scattered over the world. In only a few years
there has been an enormous increase in the number of liver
transplantations and certainly there have been performed at least as
many transplants since 1980 as between 1963 -the start of clinical liver
transplantation- and 1980. Even if our understanding is better, many
problems are the same as twenty years ago and for some there may be a
long way to go before they are solved.