Why Do We Need to Know the Differences Between the East and West?

Tsuyoshi Konishi, MD, PhD

Clinical practice in colorectal surgery varies among countries. For example, clinical guidelines of colorectal cancer in the United States, Europe, and Japan are completely different. Not only these countries, I have learned a lot of diversities in clinical practice from my personal visits to Latin America, Korea, China, Russia, and South-East Asian countries. Such wide diversity in the “standard practice” likely means that none of them are perfect. Yet, the only way to improve global patient care is to exchange mutual knowledge and experiences, learn from each other, and combine each strategy to create a better one.

The goal of this volume of Clinics in Colon and Rectal Surgery is to provide a deeper professional knowledge and multi-angled viewpoints on the hot topics in colorectal surgery by sharing and highlighting the different perspectives and approaches between the East and West. It will also clarify potential advantages and disadvantages in each contrasting approach. It should be noted that we do not intend to discuss which approaches are better. Those different approaches are not mutually exclusive, but rather mutually counterbalancing and likely compensate each other. Surgeons have a lot to learn from the other world, which will bring a game-changing convergence of standard practice in both the worlds.

The contributing authors in this volume are all international experts who have been working on investigating different approaches between the East and West to create a novel clinical practice. Thank you to all the contributors for the excellent manuscripts that not only reflect current evidence, but also include their invaluable experiences and professional viewpoints.

I would also like to express my sincere gratitude to the Editor Dr. Scott Steele for providing me the opportunity to guest-edit this volume. This volume would never come to publication without his tremendous support and mentorship. What makes him truly distinguished is his open mind and impressive commitment to helping other surgeons.

Publication History

Article published online:
03 August 2020