It gives me great pleasure to welcome you to the second edition of Cataract & Refractive Surgery Today Europe. The launch of the first issue (January/February 2006) was a tremendous success, with many colleagues initially intrigued by yet another publication, but rapidly realizing that this is one that in no way competes with other very valuable and long-established periodicals.

The uniqueness of this publication — in a nutshell — is that it highlights principally cataract and refractive surgery, now the bulk of ophthalmic surgery. Concise articles are written by key opinion leaders and those with special expertise and experience, disseminating numerous pearls of knowledge that are practical and have immediate clinical relevance. One great example is intraoperative floppy iris syndrome secondary to tamulosin, which was brought to our attention by David F. Chang, MD, through our sister US publication. Future issues planned for CRSToday Europe, I am sure, will be collector issues you will want to always keep. I shall not give away any more than this, except to say that my wife (who is also an ophthalmologist) has one issue well tucked away — I had to get her a second copy after I lost the first!

Being on the international editorial board for the US edition, I have had access to that publication, and although principally for US consumption, I have found the areas on practice management and marketing very beneficial. Europe has tremendous variation in practice and similar articles would be hard to generate. We felt that a series on the tools of business and business growth, however, would be beneficial to the readership. In this issue, I am delighted to have David Molian, from Cranfield University School of Management, contribute to this knowledge base with the first in a series of articles. I have been enrolled at a course at Cranfield; I have found that the experience is useful and would highly recommend this to ophthalmologists or their owner-managers.

Other features in this second issue include a focus on cataract complications, with tips from leading surgeons. We also invited several specialists to build their perfect laser, and in these pages we have compiled their thoughts. Another hot topic we have included in this issue is microcoaxial phaco with torsional ultrasound technology.

Finally, and most importantly, this publication is for your benefit. Cochief Medical Editor Joseph Colin, MD, and I value your contribution, either in the form of correspondence and/or suggestions for topics for future issues. People love a healthy and controversial discussion at conferences. Well, there is nothing wrong with doing the same in print! We hope you enjoy this edition, and we look forward to receiving your valuable feedback.