[Roentgen anatomy of the lymphatic system]

The enormous advances in medicine in the last 30-40 years are chiefly attributable to the constant technical development in imaging and investigation techniques. The instruments offered by the industry, which must be renewed every ten years, the hunger of doctors for information and not least the high expectation of the patients must be reconciled with our action. Besides this rapid technical development in the sector of instrumental medicine, diagnostic and therapeutic techniques have been established in precisely the same period since the beginning of the 1950's, even in the field of the more patient-related medicine. These have proved to be epoch-making, especially in lymphology, namely lymphography and therapeutic lymphatic drainage. There is no doubt that the introduction of modern diagnostic techniques such as computer tomography and nuclear spin tomography has resulted in reduction of the indication for lymphography. However, even today it is still irreplaceable by other methods in diseases of the lymphatic system, in testicular tumors, and also in lymphedema. For this reason, we consider that it is appropriate that lymphography be recalled to memory as a selective technique for application in the lymphatic system.