Principles of Surgery

Although organ transplantation is the preeminent medical miracle of the last quarter of a century, Many Sleepless Nights is the first book to go beyond the headlines and describe the patients who have embraced this last chance to hold on to life, the intricate medical procedures that can save them, the surgeons and nurses who work in this emotionally charged world, and the ethics which complicate this miracle high-tech therapy. Lee Gutkind was granted unconditional access to the world's largest transplant center - the University of Pittsburgh's Presbyterian-University and Children's hospitals, where there is an organ transplant every eight hours, 365 days per year. For four years he immersed himself in the frantic night-and-day world of transplantation, living side by side with transplant candidates and recipients, jetting though the night with organ procurement teams, monitoring patients with surgeons and nurses, observing in the operating room, participating in the ethical and psychosocial evaluations of prospective patients which help to determine who will receive scarce organs. During his four years at Presbyterian and Children's Hospitals, Gutkind established close relationships with many patients, and his portrayal of them, living and sometimes dying under unbelievable stress, is a moving and dramatic statement about the capacity of human beings to endure. Many Sleepless Nights also outlines the history of organ transplantation and tells the story of the large and complex medical teams behind the operation. It captures the tension of the search for viable organs; the pressure decisions about which patients, among many, will receive them; and the surgery itself.Its vivid portrayal of the transplant pioneer Thomas Starzl - a man obsessed with saving lives - shows how a major innovator in American medicine functions during days and nights of extreme pressure.

Winner of a COMMENDED AWARD in the Basis of Medicine category of the 2007 BMA Medical Book Competition. This book is both a lively introduction and a guidebook to those pioneers, most of them surgeons, who attempted to help their patients by extending the boundaries of their own knowledge and experience. In the 16 chapters of the book, an international group of authors have provided something of value to all those with an interest in surgical gastroenterology. Medical students and young trainees will come to understand the principles behind modern gastrointestinal surgery. Researchers will find insights and inspiration for their work and publications. Established surgeons and physicians will be rewarded with information that adds colour to their teaching, either on ward rounds or during formal lectures. Great care has been taken in choosing appropriate portraits and illustrations to bring these remarkable pioneers to life for the reader.

A history of surgical concepts and techniques from ancient Egypt to the early twentieth century, as expressed through carefully chosen selections from the original writings of the greatest surgeons in history. Each excerpt is prefaced by a detailed biographical and interpretive essay placing the work of each surgeon within its historical context. The selections are arranged both chronologically and thematically. The work also contains 115 portraits of surgeons and original illustrations from their writings.

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Excerpt from The Diagnosis of Surgical Cancer I Have first to thank the profession for the very favorable reception accorded to the former edition of this Essay: on that reception rests the apology for the comparatively early appearance of this edition. In the present edition will be found 1°, a multiplication of observed facts; 2°, the more matured reflections I have brought to bear on the interpretation of these facts: 3°, three additional Chapters - those on the Classification of Cancer, on Colloid Cancer and on Epithelioma. In the present utilitarian age the question often arises, what practical benefit ensues from the study of the pathology of an incurable disease; how much nearer do we approach the cure of Cancer? I regret to say we are as far off the cure of real Cancer, as we were in the days of Hippocrates. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

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