In writing this short monograph on 'Problems in Peripheral Vascular Disease', I have tried to steer a course between a simplistic dogmatic approach more appropriate to an under graduate text, and a detailed specialist treatise of interest only to vascular surgeons. Although arterial surgery has been performed for centuries, the main indications in the past were to deal with the effects of trauma and aneurysm formation. The development of arterio graphy and the ability to see arterial blocks and stenoses allowed surgeons to carry out increasingly sophistidated operations for an enlarging range of pathological conditions. Even today, arterial surgery continues to develop, and although we are often dealing with the 'surgery of ruins', a successful outcome is just as rewarding for surgeon and patient alike. In this book I have also included a discussion on venous problems including a note about recent developments in direct surgery of the deep veins of the lower limb which could be a re warding field of endeavour for the vascular surgeon. The original descriptions by Buerger and Raynaud are taken from 'Classic Descriptions of Disease' by Ralph H. Major. While reviewing my own surgical practice, I have had the pleasure of reading once again the publications of H.H.G. Eastcott (arterial surgery), J.T. Hobbs (varicose veins), G.L. Hill (Buerger's disease), Adrian Marston (intestinal ischaemia), Martin Bimstingl (vasospastic disorders) and C.H. Hawkes (lumbar canal stenosis).
