Gastroenterology and hepatology.Lectures.Part One

°Everything must be made as simple as possible,
but not simpler” Albert Einstein

INTRODUCTION
In recent decades, gastroenterology has become the closest specialty in internal medicine to surgical specialties, thanks to the development of surgical endoscopy and interventional ultrasound. Gastroenterology also includes hepatology. The subject of hepatogastroenterology is the disease of seven organs. Many of these diseases are also surgical at some stage of their treatment, with about 30% of gastroenterological diseases being oncological. The textbook includes extended content of the main lecture course of gastroenterology and hepatology designed and adapted for English-language learning students and postgraduate students of internal medicine. The manual also includes some diseases that are not subject to the trial, but otherwise the textbook would be incomplete. Many literary sources have been used for the writing of the manual, mostly from the recent years, including European and American consensuses. The textbook is illustrated with the most necessary tables, figures and pictures. For the purpose of issuing the manual more quickly, it was divided into two volumes - gastroenterology and hepatology. We hope that the material, presented in this way, will facilitate and increase the level of preparation for gastroenterology and hepatology of foreign students in Bulgaria. It is possible that the presented short guide will also attract students abroad, but it should be emphasized that the manual is an extended presentation of a lecture course of gastroenterology and hepatology, not including all nosological units (diseases) and without any copyright claim. We are grateful to everyone who motivated us to write this manual. From the authors.