The Fifth Annual Meeting of the International Society for Computer Assisted Orthopaedic Surgery (CAOS-International) was held in Helsinki, Finland, on June 19–22, 2005. The overall quality of the program at this year's meeting was remarkably high, with many important and interesting developments being reported. Accordingly, the editors of Computer Aided Surgery proposed to publish a special issue of the journal showcasing some of the most noteworthy research presented at the meeting.
With the support and assistance of the meeting organizers, the editors invited those presenters whose abstracts had been rated most highly by the Program Committee to submit full-length manuscripts for possible inclusion in the special issue. Despite the relatively short interval between completion of abstract review and the deadline for manuscript submission, response was enthusiastic. After subsequent completion of the peer-review and revision processes, a total of nine manuscripts were finally accepted for inclusion in this expanded issue of the journal.
The editors would like to thank the members of the CAOS-International Executive and Program Committees for their invaluable assistance with this project, and are confident that the papers presented in this issue attest to the excellence and diversity of the orthopaedic research promoted by the society.
Richard D. Bucholz, M.D., F.A.C.S.
Editor-in-Chief
Keith A. Laycock, Ph.D.
Assistant Editor