advances in abdominal surgery 2002 contains papers from a group of italian academic surgeons who contribute to a national research program entitled `progress in abdominal surgery. the research is supported by the italian ministry of the university. the primary objective of the group is to combine experimental and clinical approaches in the study of several surgical abdominal diseases. the authors of the individual chapters were requested to present an update in their own fields of research. this volume summarizes several important updates in abdominal surgery and pathophysiology. the contributions are grouped into six sections, namely surgical infection, hepatobiliary and pancreatic and splenic surgery, colorectal surgery, fecal incontinence, minimally-invasive surgery, and transplantation.