I started to work on this atlas long before I became a doctor, when I made the first anatomic illustrations. It was also the time when I first came in contact with people, who were ready to help me with their advice, their photography, illustrations, or with the transcription. I am very happy I met these people, because they gave me the final push to finish this work. At this point I would like to write my special thanks to the following people for their help and engagement:

Peter Pekny, MD: Karlova Univerzita, Hradec Kralove, Czech Republic

Pablo Pratesi, MD: Hospital Universitario Austral, Buenos Aires, Argentina

Daniel H. Garrison, Professor of Classics: Northwestern University, Evanston, IL., Usa

What makes this atlas different to other anatomic works?
There are already thousands of anatomy- related works on the market, some very good and some very weak. The problem of the most medical books is the lack of a symbiosis between a good structured didactic material, up to date information, good illustration, the relation to clinical work and not at least the price.
The purpose of this work is to try to fill this gap and to provide a modern structured informative work with enough visual material and enough hospital- related examples how the acquired knowledge from this book is used everyday. The carefully picked examples should give a medicine student or any anatomy- interested person the feeling of learning and reading something very important and bring them also a little bit closer to patients. This aspect is very important because of the fact that most students, with the exception of some section- practice, have to sit and learn anatomy for months, in most cases a very isolated, lonely and frustrating job, far away from a patient- related learning. This work tries to change this. But this is an aspect I couldn’t realize alone. The international network of people who helped me and gave me some (really) special images did the most of the job for me.

The illustrations and also this work are not perfect, nor will they ever be. But they become better every day. My special request to the reader is the following: Every progress needs a feedback, even a negative one. If you find any error, small mistake, any picture you don’t like, or are missing some illustration, further explanation or anything else, just write me.

J. Artner, MD
Dept. of Surgery, KH Bad Reichenhall, Riedelstrasse 5, 83435 Bad Reichenhall, tel.: 0049-8651-772-11014