Modern Cardiac Surgery is based on, but does not consist completely of, papers submitted at the annual course of cardiac surgery run by the combined Institutes and Post-Graduate Hospitals involved in cardiac surgery in London (1977). The subjects which have been chosen and included fulfil one of two criteria; either they are subjects which were not included in the previous book, The Current Status of Cardiac Surgery, or they cover subjects which needed to be updated. Because this is a teaching course and not a symposium, the emphasis has been on being informative rather than on presenting masses of results. The book has been prepared partly from manuscripts submitted by the authors and partly from annotated tapes of the proceedings of the meeting. Through­ out the editing and production of this book careful consideration has been given to the requirements of the readership. The book is aimed at all students of cardiac surgery and cardiology at all levels, and as much information as possible has been packed into it. Neverthe­ less, the editor wishes to thank the authors for the efforts they have made to be concise and clear in their presentation and for their tremendous co-opera­ tion in alterations which have been incorporated to make it a more readable treatise. This means that this is a book which is of value to nurses interested in cardiology in intensive care, to physiotherapists and students wishing to look up particular topics before their final examinations.