As we began to plan this book about 10 years ago, we wanted to write a practical book for medical students, doctors in training, internists, gas­ and surgeons faced with everyday clinical problems in troenterologists, the care of patients with acute and chronic pancreatitis. Now, 10 years lat­ er, our book has become much more than what we had originally intend­ ed, with so many new findings that have expanded our knowledge of pancreatic diseases, not to mention new imaging procedures and con­ trolled studies on the effectiveness of various therapies. Consequently, we decided to include: • The state-of-the-art on diagnosis and therapy in inflammatory pan­ creatic diseases • Recommendations for diagnosis and therapy based on the published results from experienced clinicians. In the many areas still untested we have relied on the decades of experience of the two authors on both sides of the Atlantic • A discussion of unanswered questions for future research by physi­ cians interested in pancreatitis who can draw upon our bibliography of almost 1900 references complete through 1996. We also wanted to demonstrate with this work that two authors from two continents can come to common conclusions that can help physicians and students in their everyday clinical work and their clinical research. It is with deep gratitude that we acknowledge the assistance of Mrs. Gisela Ropte for years of patient cooperation, great precision, and initia­ tive, as well as that of Dr. Dr.