For many years Latin American surgeons have clamored for a textbook covering topics related to the varied regional pathologic disorders within the framework of a standard solid textbook of surgery. This Latin American textbook of surgery was planned and dynamically edited by Raul Romero Torres, Chairman of the Department of Surgery at the venerable University of San Marcos (founded in 1551), Lima, Peru. This rather monumental textbook (as designated by David C. Sabinston, Jr, author of the prologue) covers many of the problems that are autochthonous to the Latin American region and which are not commonly seen in North America or Europe, such as the complications of diseases caused by fungi, protozoa, and helminths, Chagas' disease, hydatidosis, endemic goiter, illnesses of high altitudes, and the like.
The book, consisting of 42 well-illustrated chapters, has been published in an elegant hardbound two-volume set by Nueva Editorial Interamericana of Mexico. As a