Dear Readers of the Turkish Journal of Surgery,
I would like to start my words with sad news. We are saddened by the loss of Prof. Dr. Altan Tüzüner, a former president of the Turkish Surgical Association and a senior member of the editorial board of our journal. Prof. Tüzüner was a person who had great services to both the Turkish Surgical Association and our journal.
I wish condolences to his family and the Turkish surgical family.
In this December 2022 issue, you will have the chance to read very interesting studies. One of them is an important meta-analysis from India. Hernia surgery is an essential part of the daily routine of many surgeons in terms of daily patient load. Therefore I believe that the studies in hernia surgery bring very critical information for a significant number of readers. In this metaanalysis, Sinha et al. report whether a routine nerve detection has been performed during groin hernia surgery (1). It is a fact that revealing the nerve anatomy has a paramount importance in terms of postoperative pain. The interesting results of this meta-analysis show that this procedure is not regularly performed. I anticipate that the readers who are interested in hernia surgery will read this important meta-analysis with pleasure.
Another interesting study in this issue is about the gallbladder cancer. Gallbladder cancer is a relatively rare type of cancer and is known for its poor prognosis. In the last few decades, great advances have been made in the diagnosis and treatment of gallbladder cancer. Today, many patients are being diagnosed at an operable stage and more radical surgical procedures can be performed with improved liver surgery techniques. In addition to all these, many patients are referred to HPB surgery centers with -bad surprise- cancer diagnoses detected after cholecystectomy that had been performed for benign reasons. For all these reasons, studies on gallbladder cancer are very important. Uzun et al. report their experience on a large series of patients with gallbladder cancer (2). They are presenting the data on the long-term survival results, which is seldomly reported in the concerning literature. Therefore, I strongly recommend you to read this valuable study.
As of this issue, we are coming to the end of another publication year. In 2022, we were able to publish numerous important studies and I hope you had the chance to cite these articles in your works. On the other hand, I would like to remind you once again that our video article system as well as the instructions have been revised and technical facilities have been provided to the researchers who wish to send video articles to our journal. Turkish Journal of Surgery is an open access journal, and the published articles can be downloaded free of charge. In accordance with the publication policy of our journal, no fee is being charged for the submissions or accepted studies. Considering the current state of the scientific publishing worldwide, Turkish Journal of Surgery stands in a special place in this sense.
On behalf of the editorial team of TJS I wish for a Merry Christmas for our international readers and Happy New Year for all!
Best wishes,