Long-Term Hemodialysis: The Management of the Patient With Chronic Renal Failure

The 50,000 individuals who die each year in the United States of uremia have brought chronic dialysis to the mandatory attention and concern of the medical profession. Because such therapy offers substantial salvage of useful and reasonably comfortable life of patients otherwise dying of terminal renal disease, it has become a social as well as a medical issue, as the facilities available can handle only a minute fraction of those who might benefit from therapy. This book attempts to review the current state of chronic dialysis, bringing together the extensive experience and opinion of a group of pioneer "dialyzers" from the Boston, New York, and Seattle centers. The introductory chapter is written by Dr. John Merrill whose own book, some 18 years ago, stimulated substantially the introduction of the artificial kidney into clinical medicine. He traces the metamorphosis of dialysis from an acute therapy used to supplant temporary renal failure