Unlike many commonly encountered disease processes which remain within the purview of a given discipline, IAH and ACS readily cross the usual barriers and may occur in any patient population regardless of age, illness, or injury. As a result, no one scientific society or association can represent the wide variety of physicians, nurses, respiratory therapists, and other allied healthcare personnel who might encounter patients with IAH and/or ACS in their daily practice. To fill this void, the World Society on Abdominal Compartment Syndrome (WSACS) has been founded to serve as a peer-reviewed forum and educational resource for all healthcare providers as well as industry who have an interest in IAH and ACS. Launched at the second World Congress on Abdominal Compartment Syndrome in December 2004, the mission of the WSACS is to foster education, promote research, and thereby improve the survival of patients with IAH and ACS by bringing together physicians, nurses, and others from throughout the world and from a variety of clinical disciplines.