This small but information-packed book is the first to focus exclusively on iatrogenic vascular injuries. It is a timely first, for the scope and magnitude of this subject have reached almost epidemic proportions recently, as a result of exponential increases in the use of invasive diagnostic and therapeutic procedures by almost every medical and surgical speciality. The data on vascular trauma from "civilian" experiences are becoming dominated by injuries of iatrogenic cause. Even were it not for medical-legal liability, the importance of prompt recognition and correct treatment of injuries that we ourselves cause is obvious, as is the need for preventive measures to be clearly identified and adopted. This book serves these needs well through a nicely balanced focus on prevention, on the one hand, with its comprehensive review of epidemiology and etiology, and on management, on the other, with its practical comments on diagnosis, treatment and outcome. The organization of this book makes it very usable. After chapters on both arterial and venous catheterization injuries, there follows a thorough analysis of injuries associated with percutaneous transluminal angioplasty and other endovascular procedures. Then, after a chapter on noninvasive vascular injuries, there follows a series of chapters dealing with vascular injuries associated with the practice of specific specialties: radiation therapy, orthopedics, neurosurgery (especially lumbar disc surgery), gynecology, head and neck surgery, urology, adult general surgery, and pediatric surgery.

Our knowledge of postoperative thromboembolic complications has increased enormously over the past 2 decades, particularly where diag nosis and prophylaxis are concerned. The 125 I-fibrinogen method of diagnosing thrombosis has completely changed our concept of the frequency, occurrence, and natural course of thrombosis, and it has formed the basis of most thromboprophylactic studies. Concurrently with the development of this diagnostic method, two methods for the prophylaxis of thrombosis have come into vo gue, namely low-dose heparin and dextran. Both these methods were tested in very extensive studies during the seventies, and their value has been unequivocally proved, for reducing both the frequency of thrombosis with and without symptoms, and the frequency of fatal pulmonary embolism. Thromboprophylaxis is not particularly common in surgery; how ever, and its general use is far from uncontested. It has been argued that not only does it complicate surgical activities and make them mo re expensive, but it also involves an unacceptable number of other complications."