THE SCALPEL AND THE HEART

by Robert G. Richardson ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 1, 1970

Mr. Richardson, a British medical journalist, author of Surgery, Old and New Frontiers (1968), concentrates his research here upon the specialized history of cardiac surgery. The author discusses the controversies in attitude, theory and method that developed from the third century B.C. to the contemporary successes in heart transplants by Christiaan Barnard, Denton Cooley and Shumway. The presentation is roughly chronological with the material ordered into general categories: related discoveries in other metabolic systems (circulation, respiration); diseases and malfunctions of the heart; development of diagnostic and operative techniques. Although Mr. Richardson maintains that heart surgery was not really proven to be reliable until 1953, safeguarded by technological advances in the heart-lung machine, anaesthesia and blood transfusion, the lay reader will probably find the earlier history of pioneers more accessible--since Mr. Richardson tends to accelerate his technical use of language for the progress made so quickly in the past two decades.

Pub Date: Aug. 1, 1970

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Scribners

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 1970

Categories: NONFICTION