A comprehensive text of intensive care would readily fill the equivalent
of the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary. This is because the diseases
treated are both numerous and varied; thus the patient can be medical,
surgical, trauma or obstetric. It follows that the sum total of
knowledge which needs to be available is truly encyclopaedic. This
compact volume represents only a fragment of such information. The
contributors were chosen because of their experience and because their
methods were well-tried. The text therefore summarizes the best of
current therapy and includes the controversial. The contributors come
from four countries, adding an international flavour. One topic - The
Recovery Room - outside the confines of intensive care has been included
for two reasons. The recovery room is an important but neglected aspect
of care, and it also seems important to define its relationships with
the intensive care unit. It is hoped that the book will help the nurses
and doctors involved in intensive care and, therefore, the patient. ERIC
SHERWOOD JONES Vll Contributors P. M. ASHWORTH K. CHATTERJEE Department
of N . using - Medicine Cardiology Division University of Manchester
University of California San Francisco Stop ford Building Cardiovascular
Research Institute Oxford Road Manchester M 13 9PT, UK Moffitt Hospital
Rm. 1186 San Francisco California 94143, USA S. T. ATHERTON Intensive
Care Unit Whiston Hospital E. M. COOKE Prescot Department of
Microbiology Merseyside, UK University of Leeds Leeds LS2 91Z, UK B. J.
BAIN W. E.
