Transplant Surgery [antikvár]

PrefaceOrgan transplantation is one of the most rapidly growing areas of surgery, one which has presented anaesthetists with challenges of a type found in few others. The patients are suffering from otherwise incurable, usually fatal diseases. The skills needed to make them fit for operation, to carry them through it and finally to get them back on their feet again, are of a very high order. Those caring for them have to understand the nature of the illnesses, the means of maintaining life, the problems posed by the surgical procedures, the means employed to suppress graft rejection and the anxieties of the patients and their families, as well as the techniques of anaesthesia and intensive care which make these operations possible.Until now, no comprehensive text has been available for those entering this field for the first time, or for those who find themselves faced with patients awaiting transplants or having already received grafts. While aimed primarily at anaesthetists, it is hoped that this book will also prove useful to doctors in other specialties who need an overview of organ grafting, its problems and their solutions, to nurses in theatres, intensive care units and wards, and to physiotherapists, radiographers and technicians, indeed all who come into contact with these patients.In this book are gathered together the views of people who are every day engaged in this task. All of them are personally known to the Editor, indeed most have worked, or are still working, in the Cambridge area. Grateful thanks are due to all of them for the time and trouble spent in setting down on paper the fruits of their enormous collective experience. Thanks are also due to their secretaries for typing their scripts, to those responsible for preparing the illustrations, and to their families for letting them do it. Lastly the Series Editor, Professor A.R. Hunter and the Publishers, are to be congratulated on their great patience and forbearance during the gestation of this volume.JohnV. FarmanXI