[This year's congress of the Society of American Gastrointestinal Endoscopic Surgeons (SAGES) was held in Monterey, California. As a fellow of the Department of Gastroenterology at the University of Southern California, I was able to attend the congress with the support of Dr. Berci, Professor of Surgery at Cedars-Sinai Hospital.]

[Mankind has suffered from the agony of gallstones for thousands of years. Until the second half of the last century, there was practically no cure, the only relief being spontaneous internal and external fistulas in the midst of great pain.]

[A horseshoe kidney is diagnosed usually after the onset of its complication or the symptoms caused by an arising tumor from it. A tumour was diagnosed in the right half of the horseshoe kidney in a 68 year old female patient by excretory urography, ultrasound examination and renovasography. The tumour was removed by radical nephrectomy. The kidney was exposed through a horizontal abdominal approach. Special attention was given to the separate renal arteries supplying the right half of the horseshoe kidney and to the resection of the isthmus and also regional lymphadenectomy. In the diagnosis of a horseshoe kidney excretion urography had exclusively been used earlier but nowadays ultrasound is playing an increasingly important role. Reno vasography is usually needed only before resection or nephrectomy. The appropriate treatment of a horseshoe kidney tumour - in case of a well functioning contralateral kidney - is radical ablastic tumour nephrectomy including regional lymphadenectomy. ]

[I. General principles before surgical treatment of epilepsy; II. The surgical investigation process; III. Indications for surgery]

[The author details the main indications of external fixstion, as well as the professional and socioeconomic causes of recent trends. He also describes the management of extremity injuries in wartime. There is an emphasis of attainment and maintenance of transportability of the injured. For the first fixation procedure external fixation, plaster or their combination should be applied. The author's new method combines the use disposable and the sophisticated dynamic axial fixation device that can be attached onto the same common pin system. The cheap disposable device is applied for the time of the transportation and is replaced later with the definitive device later if needed. The new Manuflex Maxi single use fixators are cost effective and can be used with good results even in peace time surgery. It has shown excellent biomechanical characteristics compared to Orthofix.]