In an attempt to attain the best possible delimitation of all the problems posed today by benign diseases of the esophagus, 181 authors each agreed to answer one or more of 210 questions that had been drawn up on the subject. These questions, each one deliberately limited and difficult, mostly concerned reflux esophagitis: its natural history, the means of its diagnosis, all existing treatments, and its eventual degeneration. The authors approached are today’s most reputed specialists in the fields of epidemiology, gastroenterology, endoscopy, pathology, and surgery of esophageal diseases. The authors were all assigned one or more questions in their own field, none of which was simple: all did their best to synthesize in their replies their own experience on the precise point under review and included all the most useful bibliographical references on the topic. The book is thus the result of an original, individual approach to try to pinpoint the heart of a problem. The 210 answers succeed one another in logical progression according to the different diagnostic and therapeutic stages, specifying, at each step, the degree of precision sought. Consequently, the reader has at his disposal an exceptional synthesis of facts and concepts. Opening the book at random he will find at once the detail he is looking for, the professional opinion he is lacking, or the development of a question he had perhaps not yet asked himself.
