Acknowledgments

During the creation and production of our textbook, we were lucky to have the assistance and support of countless talented professionals both within and outside our department.

First, a task of this size could not be completed without the unwavering support provided by our Department Chairman, Dr. Steven Bloom, and Vice-Chairman, Dr. Barry Schwarz. Their financial and academic endorsement of our efforts has been essential. Without their academic vision, this undertaking could not have flourished.

In constructing a compilation of this breadth, the expertise of physicians from several departments was needed to add vital, contemporaneous information. We were fortunate to have Dr. April Bailey, with joint appointments in the Department of Radiology and Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, add her insight and knowledge as a specialist in radiology. Her many stunning images contribute to the academic richness of this edition. From the Department of Pathology, Dr. Kelley Carrick also shared generously from her cadre of outstanding images. She translated her extensive knowledge of gynecologic pathology into concepts relevant for the general gynecologist. From the Department of Surgery at Johns Hopkins University, Dr. David Euhus lent his considerable knowledge of breast disease to contribute both classic and state-of-the-art information to his truly comprehensive chapter, founded on his broad research and clinical expertise. From the Department of Psychiatry here at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas and from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine, we were lucky to have Drs. Geetha Shivakumar and Anna Brandon provide an extensive discussion of psychosocial issues. They expertly distilled a broad topic into a logically organized, practical, and complete presentation. In addition, Dr. Gretchen Stuart, formerly of our department and now a faculty member at the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, lent her considerable talents in summarizing contraceptive methods and sterilization techniques. Many warm thanks are extended to Dr. Rajiv Gala, also formerly of our department and now of the Ochsner Clinic. Rajiv masterfully organized and summarized chapters on ectopic pregnancy and perioperative practice. His extensive review of the literature and evidence-based writing shines through these chapters. In this edition, new contributors include Drs. Anthony Russell and Andrea Russo from the Department of Radiation Oncology at Massachusetts General Hospital—Harvard Medical School. In their chapter on radiation therapy, they adeptly provided clear explanations of this therapy's fundamentals and offered extensive suggestions for clinical management of patient complications that may be encountered.

Within our own department, the list is too long and the words are too few to convey our heartfelt thanks to all of our department members for their generous contributions. From our Gynecology Division, many thanks are extended to Drs. Elysia Moschos and April Bailey, who sculpted a clear and detailed summary of traditional and new gynecologic imaging tools. In this edition, these two authors updated radiologic images as needed to present ultimate examples of normal anatomy and gynecologic pathology. We were also lucky to have experts in the field of preinvasive lesions of the lower genital tract, Drs. Claudia Werner and William Griffith. They crafted an information-packed discussion of this topic. In addition, Dr. Griffith has been a steadfast advocate of our project and has added extensive photographic content to many of our chapters. Drs. David Rahn and Eddie McCord teamed to update the chapter on gynecologic infection. Their extensive patient-care experience and rigorous literature review added greatly to the academic and clinical value of this chapter. We were also fortunate to have the expert writing talents of Drs. Mayra Thompson and Kimberly Kho, who provided a compelling and comprehensive discussion of minimally invasive surgery. Our textbook benefitted greatly from the clinical savvy and teaching-centric information that David Rogers and David Owens provided to their chapter. Also, Dr. Rogers has been a long-time supporter of our textbook. We are indebted to him for many of the classic surgical photographs in this edition. Intraoperative fundamentals were thoroughly and logically presented by Drs. Cherine Hamid and Sunil Balgobin. Their strengths in clinical practice and resident teaching are evident in their well-organized and essential chapter. Once again, blending experience and academic fundamentals, Dr. Mary Jane Pearson offered a comprehensive but concise primer on well care for the gynecologic patient.

Our Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility Division provided other talented physicians and writers. Dr. Kevin Doody lent his considerable clinical and academic prowess in the treatment of infertility. He penned a chapter that clearly describes the state of the art in this field. Dr. Doody was also a kind benefactor with his spectacular clinical photographs on the topic and contributed these generously to numerous chapters. In addition, Dr. Ellen Wilson brought her wealth of clinical experience to chapters on pediatric gynecology and androgen excess. Drawing from her academic and clinical expertise, she crafted chapters that presented practical, prescriptive, and comprehensive discussions of these topics.

Dr. Marlene Corton is a skilled urogynecologist and has written extensively on pelvic anatomy. We were thrilled to have her create stunning chapters on anatomy and anal incontinence. Also from the Urogynecology and Female Pelvic Reconstruction Division, Drs. Clifford Wai and David Rahn added expanded content to their chapter on urinary incontinence. Dr. Wai also masterfully updated his chapter on vesicovaginal fistula and urethral diverticulum. Special thanks are extended to Dr. Ann Word and her contributions to our chapter on pelvic organ prolapse. Her expertise in extracellular matrix remodeling of the female reproductive tract added fundamental content to the discussion of prolapse physiology.

Dr. David Miller generously contributed his talents without hesitation, and we are indebted to him for his altruism toward our project. In addition, the Division of Gynecologic Oncology offered a deep bench of talented writers. The topic of vulvar cancer was thoroughly covered by Dr. Jayanthi Lea. Dr. Lea also assisted with updating our atlas and added essential steps for minimally invasive approaches. Her strengths in clinical practice and resident teaching are evident in her well-organized and evidence-based chapters. We also benefitted from Dr. Debra Richardson's comprehensive presentation and clinical discussions of cervical and vaginal cancer in her two chapters. She has been a true advocate of both the text and study guide. Dr. Siobhan Kehoe described with clarity and clinical relevance the care and treatment of women with endometrial cancer. We were appreciative of Dr. Matthew Carlson, who teamed with David Miller to present the varied pathology and treatment of uterine sarcoma.

With this edition, several of our valued authors have turned their efforts to other promising pursuits. We are grateful to Drs. F. Gary Cunningham, Bruce Carr, David Hemsell, Larry Word, and Phuc Nguyen for their prior contributions to Williams Gynecology. All with well-known and well-established careers, they generously contributed their academic skills without hesitation. We are indebted to them for their altruism toward our project.

Of these academicians, Dr. F. Gary Cunningham provided the academic vision that led to the creation of this text. Dr. Cunningham has been the senior author for seven editions of Williams Obstetrics, spanning over 25 years. As such, we benefited greatly from his writing genius, his meticulous organization, and his tenacity to task. His dedication to evidence-based medicine established the foundation on which our textbook was built. We feel privileged to have learned the craft of clear, concise academic summary from a consummate master.

New beautiful and detailed artwork in our atlas this edition was drawn by Mr. Lewis Calver, here at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas. Again for this edition, he paired his academic talents with Dr. Marlene Corton to create updated hysterectomy and urogynecologic images. Both of these anatomists committed countless hours in the cadaver laboratory and in the library to create academically new presentations. These renderings were crafted and tailored with the gynecologic surgeon in mind to depict important techniques and anatomy for these surgeries. Dr. Jayanthi Lea joined this gifted duo to add complementary and informative illustrations to her description of minimally invasive cancer surgeries.

We also acknowledge the efforts of our atlas artists from the first two editions: Marie Sena, Erin Frederikson, Jordan Pietz, Maya Shoemaker, SangEun Cha, Alexandra Gordon, Jennie Swensen, Amanda Tomasikiewicz, and Kristin Yang. Additionally, alumni from the Biomedical Communications Program at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center provided seminal pieces. These alumni include Katherine Brown, Thomas “T. J.” Fels, Belinda Klein, Anne Matuskowitz, Lindsay Oksenberg, Kimberly VanExel, and faculty member Richard P. Howdy, Jr. Also, Ms. Kimberly Hoggatt Krumwiede graciously provided several image series to help clarify the steps and missteps of reproductive tract development.

Within our text, images add powerful descriptive content to our words. Accordingly, many, many thanks are extended to those who donated surgical and clinical photographs. Of our contributors, many beautiful photographs within our book were taken by Mr. David Gresham, Chief Medical Photographer at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. Dave's eye for detail, shading, and composition allowed even simple objects to shine and be illustrated to their full potential. He has been an advocate and valued consultant. Our pathology images were presented at their best thanks to Mr. Mark Smith, a graphics designer here at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. His expertise with micrographs improved the clarity and visual aesthetic of many our microscopic images.

The providers in the Obstetrics and Gynecology Emergency Services (OGES) at Parkland Hospital were huge allies in our acquisition of images to illustrate normal and abnormal gynecologic findings. The skilled women's health care nurse practitioners have been true supporters of our efforts, and we sincerely thank them.

We are truly indebted to our administrative staff. For this project, we were lucky to have Ms. Sandra Davis serve as our primary administrative assistant. We are greatly appreciative of her tremendous efforts, professionalism, and efficiency. Ms. Ellen Watkins was a valuable assistant in obtaining needed journal articles. She truly helped to keep our project evidence-based. None of our image and text production would have been possible without the brilliant information technology team in our department. Knowledgeable and responsive, Mr. Charles Richards and Mr. Thomas Ames have supported our project since the first edition. We could not do our job without their expertise.

Williams Gynecology was sculpted into its final form by the talented and dedicated group at McGraw-Hill Education. Once again, Ms. Alyssa Fried has brought her considerable intelligence, energetic work ethic, and creativity to our project. Her attention to detail and organizational talents have kept our project on track with efficiency and style. Our words fall well short in expressing our gratitude to her. Ms. Samantha Williams served as assistant to Ms. Fried, and we extend warm thanks for her tremendous support. Her efficiency, professionalism, hard work, accuracy, and positive attitude made coordination of this project a dream. Mr. Andrew Moyer joined our project during its final sculpting. He has taken our project under his care and has adeptly shepherded it to completion with a calm and efficient style. We happily look forward to many future collaborative editions together.

Without the thoughtful, creative efforts of many, our textbook would be a barren wasteland of words. Integral to this process are Armen Ovsepyan, at McGraw-Hill Education, and Alan Barnett of Alan Barnett Design. Mr. Richard Ruzycka served as production supervisor for this edition of our textbook. He adeptly kept our project on track through an array of potential hurdles. Special thanks are extended to Mr. Joseph Varghese and Dr. Shetoli Zhimomi at Thomson Digital. They and their artistic team assisted us in revising many of our text images. Their attention to detail and accurate renderings added important academic support to our words.

Our text took its final shape under the watchful care of our compositors at Aptara, Inc. Specifically, we thank Ms. Indu Jawwad for her talents in skillfully and expediently coordinating and overseeing composition. Her dedicated attention to detail and organization were vital to completion of our project. Her pleasant professionalism was appreciated daily. Also at Aptara, Mr. Shashi Lal Das served a crucial task of quality control and assisted in creating beautiful chapter layouts to highlight our content aesthetically and informatively. Special thanks go to Ms. Kristin Landon. As copyeditor for now several editions of both Williams Obstetrics and Williams Gynecology, Kristin has added precision and clarity to our efforts. Her pleasant and patient professionalism has made our text better.

We offer a sincere “thank you” to our residents in training. Their curiosity keeps us energized to find new and effective ways to convey age-old as well as cutting-edge concepts. Their logical questions lead us to holes in our text, and thereby, always help us to improve our work. Moreover, many of the photographs in this textbook were gathered with the help of our many residents.

In addition, the contributors to this text owe a significant debt to the women who have allowed us to participate in their care. The images and clinical expertise presented in this text would not have been possible without their collaborative spirit to help us move medical knowledge forward.

Last, we offer an enthusiastic and heartfelt “thank you” to our families and friends. Without their patience, generosity, and encouragement, this task would have been impossible. For them, too many hours with “the book” left them with new responsibilities. And importantly, time away from home left precious family memories and laughs unrealized. We sincerely thank you for your love and support.