The international interdisciplinary gathering of top of secondary brain damage in brain trauma, as ac­ level clinical and laboratory scientists in Mauls, Italy knowledged from the beginning of these workshops in has developed from its beginning in 1984into a fruitful Mauls, the significance of inflammation is all but clear. tradition where worldwide experts active and knowl­ Although inflammatory phenomena are seen in trauma edgeable in cerebral ischemia and trauma convene for and ischemia ofthe brain, as activation ofwhite blood update and exchanges of their most recent clinical and cells with emigration into the tissue presumably en­ experimental findings and concepts. These meetings hancing damage, inflammatory cells may have benefi­ have, of course, experienced shifts in emphasis from cial properties as well. Thechapter on the Janus-faceof the past until now, corresponding to the most actual inflammation isanalyzing this ambiguity. developments, which were fascinating clinicians and The exploration of novel cell-biological mechanisms laboratory scientists alike. The current Supplement of on a molecular or more systemic basis causing apop­ Acta Neurochirurgica is an example in case. Its virtue totic cell death, inflammation, or regeneration, provide as before is that authors contribute articles in a review­ useful objectives for therapeutical interventions ex­ like manner on their own field of research, according pected to be more specific than the present treatment to the platform presentations at the meeting as indis­ modalities.