Our journey to acquire knowledge towards a surgical career began at St. Mary's Hospital Medical School. The first time we all met, two of us (Omer Aziz and Sanjay Purkayastha) were medical students being taught by a senior house officer called ‘Barry’ (Paraskevas Paraskeva). His teaching was clear to follow, enthusiastically delivered, and extremely practical. It instilled in us all a responsibility towards our patients, and pride in the way that we managed them. A close friendship and collaboration subsequently ensued, and has lead to us teaching and examining hundreds of medical students together every year in the UK.

The three of us have been fortunate to have been influenced by some excellent texts and inspiring clinicians during our training, which has been a key part of us developing and forming our surgical judgement. In recent times however, we have felt the increasing need to combine key surgical principles with modern practical knowledge, for the medical student or junior doctor to use on a daily basis on the wards. Hospital Surgery aims to provide this up-to-date knowledge in a clear and concise format. We hope that this handbook provides those who are learning to manage surgical patients with the strong foundation they need.