Description

The first year of a new journal is always challenging. The editorial board is still not fully established, it is difficult to judge the market and pitch the articles at the right level, and there is always the danger that the flow of contributions dries up. Therefore, we were anxious to see how the 2001 started. It started well. We have contributions from the old and the new world, touching on a variety of topics, all giving a taste of what goes on in different parts of the orthopaedic community. There is no doubt that modern orthopaedic surgery is a very technical specialty. The arthroscope has become one of the most frequently used instruments of modern orthopaedic surgery, with a high rate of success if the right procedure is chosen for the right patient.

Arthroscopic shoulder stabilisation has now reached a high rate of success, very close to that of open procedures. No doubt things will continue to improve, and in the near future we should have an even better vision of what can be done using arthroscopic techniques.

The management of arthritides forms a major portion of the practice of general orthopaedic surgeon, at least in the UK, and their prevalence seems to be on the increase even in less affluent societies. We start here a two article series trying to put forward the problems facing surgeons when trying to tackle these patients.

Our medico-legal corner clarifies some of the issues that even our more senior colleagues find difficult to grasp, and that is just England and Wales. The journal is now cited in Excerpta Medica: hopefully, we shall climb even higher. No such success would have been possible without the help of dedicated reviewers who take time from their busy practices and their families to act as quality controllers for the journal. Thank you from the editorial board.