The International Society on Oxygen Transport to Tissue (ISOTT) was founded in 1973 "to facilitate the exchange of scientific information among those interested in any aspect of the transport and/or utilization of oxygen in tissues". Its members span virtually all disciplines, extending from various branches of clinical medicine such as anesthesiology, ophthalmology and surgery through the basic medical sciences of physiology and'biochemistry to most branches of the physical sciences and engineering. The seventeenth annual meeting of ISOTT was held in 1989 for four days, from July 21 to 24, at the Max Planck Institute for Experimental Medicine and the adjoining University Hospital (Klinikum), in Goettingen, Federal Republic of Germany. It attracted 147 active registrants and approximately 40 accompanying persons. The very successful format originated by Dr. Ian Longmuir in 1985, consisting of posters accompanied by an abbreviated oral summary, was continued with slight modification. Virtually all of the presentations utilized this format, with each poster session preceded by a formal discussion during which the presenter briefly reviewed the poster aided by a few slides. All posters remained in place for the entire four days of the meeting.