The authors of this monograph undertake to "collate the newer and more sophisticated research knowledge in several specific areas," ie, ionic flux in muscle and the extravascular fluid space. They devote the major part of the text to these topics and much of the remainder to oxygen transport, hypothermia, renal function, and some of their own clinical data.
There is little or no reference to many of the fundamental issues under active discussion in the current literature, such as the pathology of the microcirculation, the cause of the refractory state, or the precipitous loss of resistance to infection. The role of the nervous system, of the vasoactive agents, and the mechanism of action of corticosteroids are dismissed with too little or no discussion.
This volume is one of a series of volumes on major problems in clinical surgery. The editor of the series presents this volume as a "vade mecum