Polymers and polymer based composites have gained increasingly larger applications in medicine and surgery. Presently, most biomaterials applications rely on industrial substances that were initially developed by industry for non-medical purposes. Moreover, polymers have been often used regardless of their peculiar characteristics which can be viceversa and very attractive for some specific applications. In the past years we have assisted to a significative and faster development of polymer science as well as of medicine and surgery. The assistance of computer aided apparatus, the use of always more advanced instruments, the larger interest of the academic and industrial world, bring continuously new contributions to the research on biomedical and parmaceutical use of polymers. The need of a forum where these specific researchs can be presented and discussed, and the success of the 1st Conference on Polymers in Medicine, held in Porto Cervo in 1982, have encouraged the Editors to plana periodical meeting, focused on polymers and composites, to be held every odd year. This book contains papers selected by an International Scientific Committee among those presented at the 2nd International Conference on Polymers in Medicine, Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Applications, held in Capri, Italy, 3-7 June, 1985. In addition to contributed papers, several Authors were invited to present the "state of the art" as well as their personal contibution on specific key arguments. The level of all contributions was high, the participation well qualified, and the meeting interesting and hopefully pleasant.
