The 8th International Congress of Biorheology was held at the Pacifico
Yokohama, Japan, a brand new, versatile convention center for
international meetings, from August 3 through 8, 1992. There were many
plenary lectures and symposia, one of which was entitled "Mechanics of
the Venous System." It was at this symposium that we, the editors of
this monograph, each presented papers. We then moved to Gifu, Japan, for
the Gifu Workshop on Veins and Vascular Capacitance. This was held on
August 9, 1992, with the Second Department of Medicine, Gifu University
School of Medicine, serving as the host. Nine papers were presented in
the oral sessions and there were five poster presentations. This
monograph, which is intended to provide a bird's- eye view of recent
trends in studies of the venous system, is an outgrowth of the Gifu
Workshop. While it is not exactly the Proceedings ofthat workshop,
materials in the monograph were developed from ideas presented there.