There has been an exponential increase in the volume and quality of published research relating to colorectal disease over the last decades.This book identifies the 50 key scientific articles in the field of colorectal disease and colorectal surgery and through expert reflections and editorial perspectives explains why these papers are important.Influential contributors who have shaped the practice of modern Colorectal Surgery comment on the Landmark Papers that have shaped and defined the specialty. Among thousands of articles, a small fraction are truly “game changing.” Such studies form the foundations of colorectal surgery today and the selection of papers within this book provide the 50 landmark papers every 21st-century colorectal surgeon needs to know.