Peripheral Vascular Disease

Doctors Barnet and Fraser of the Alfred Hospital Clinical Research Unit, Melbourne, Australia submitted this monograph for the Stawell Memorial Prize Essay of the British Medical Association for the year 1952 and were awarded the prize. They believed a "fresh consideration" of peripheral vascular disease in order because of the great prevalence of this type of disease, the need for increasing accuracy in diagnosis of such lesions, and the importance at this time of assessing the more recent work that has been done with reference to etiology, pathogenesis, and treatment as this field has developed over the recent years. The book is divided into seven chapters followed by a short summary. The first has to do with the history of knowledge of peripheral vascular disease. This is followed by an interesting chapter on the physiology of blood vessels, concerning both structural and dynamic characteristics. The chapter on diagnosis presents the special tests and apparatus which the authors consider have proved to be generally helpful clinically. The chapter on pathology is concisely presented and illustrated with a number of black and white photographs of gross and microscopic specimens. It dwells considerably on the pathogenesis of arteriosclerosis. The chapter on clinical features is presented from the standpoint of the syndromes caused by various diseases. These syndromes are then illustrated with case histories taken from the authors' clinical experience. The chapter on treatment includes a helpful discussion of the mechanism of action of drugs useful in this field. There is a final discussion as to prognosis of the different lesions. The text is supplemented with 31 figures and 29 plates, including a few in color. Within the limits of 192 pages of text the authors do a remarkably good job in presenting the problems of peripheral vascular disease from the seven points of view indicated above, and as such I think this book will serve as an excellent introduction to the field. Moreover, it is unusually well documented so that though the text may be short and concise, the reader can easily pursue the subject further from the references, many of which are relatively recent. With reference to the surgery of peripheral vascular disease, the book concerns itself mainly with brief discussion as to indications and occasionally as to relative worth of different procedures. In short, this is a concise, well documented though brief, introduction to peripheral vascular disease based on a sound presentation of the physiology and pathology of blood vessels. It should prove useful to students, to general practitioners, and to those who would like a summary of recent trends in this field.