Autonomic Failure: A Textbook of Clinical Disorders of the Autonomic Nervous System

The third edition of this classic text, extensively revised, is now available in paperback, priced so that all interested physicians can have their own copy. The autonomic nervous system regulates, without conscious awareness, the function of the heart and all other bodily organs. Autonomic failure can cause a variety of seemingly strange symptoms, which may present to general physicians or a wide spectrum of specialists. This book shows how these symptoms can be studied scientifically in order to reach a precise diagnosis and instigate rational treatment.

Doody Review Services

Reviewer:Steven U. Brint, MD(University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine)
Description:This is the third edition of this textbook that comprehensively describes the pathophysiology of human autonomic nervous system.
Purpose:The book's purpose is to provide the clinician with the scientific basis to understand, identify, and evaluate autonomic dysfunction. This is one of the few textbooks available that comprehensively address this subject at any level. The editors' objectives are clearly met.
Audience:The audience is primarily the clinician involved in patient care or clinical research in general medicine, neurology, geriatrics, or cardiology. Highly motivated housestaff and students may also find it valuable. Roger Bannister, the editor of the previous editions, is a neurologist with an international reputation and long-standing interest in primary autonomic failure. This is the first edition with Christopher J. Mathias as an additional editor. The contributors are of high caliber.
Features:The book is probably underillustrated. The bulk of the illustrations are complex physiologic graphs. References are current only to 1991. The index is excellent and uses bold type to indicate in-depth coverage. The book is thick and awkward, but the smaller paperback style no doubt improves its affordability.
Assessment:This book is quite useful for providing the clinician with basic and clinical research underpinnings for understanding common autonomic problems--systemic, traumatic, and primary. Because it amply fills gaps in most clinicians' knowledge, comprehensively addresses many important clinical problems, and is a good reference text, the third edition is warranted. There is relatively little redundancy. It is limited by several chapters that are difficult reading and a by general deemphasis on therapeutics and m olecular biology. The book is suitable for the individual, bookstore, and library.