The focus of Langenbeck's Archives of Surgery in the 21st century

Background The Langenbeck's Archives of Surgery has been serving as a publication platform for clinical and scientific progress in the field of surgery for 150 years. In order to maintain this long-standing tradition throughout the coming decades, it will be mandatory to face the challenges posed by increasing specialization of surgical subdisciplines, modern technologies, and interdisciplinary treatment options. Discussion Continued efforts need to be directed at minimizing surgical trauma, not at least with respect to current demographic development. Adoption of progressive technologies from the fields of biophysics, mechatronics, and biomedical imaging solutions will likely gain a major impact on the further development of surgical operation techniques. Expanding insight from genomic and molecular medicine will facilitate personalized, interdisciplinary treatment concepts for malignant disease, in which surgical resection techniques will need to be integrated. The introduction of novel diagnostic and treatment concepts will mandate solid evaluation of their clinical effectiveness and safety, which can only be achieved by randomized, controlled trials in the field of surgery. Conclusion Extracting study ideas from the contributions by clinicians and basic scientists, and promoting the conduction of clinical trials will therefore range among the most important tasks for the Langenbeck's Archives of Surgery in the 21st century.