Book Reviews
211
COUNSELING WITH SENIOR CITIZENS. J. PAUL BROWN. Prentice Hall, Inc., Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, 1964. 144 pp. Price $2.95. THIS BOOK, a volume in the Successful Pustorul Counseling series, lays forth the problems of retired persons and ways to meet these problems. The author is Minister of Pastoral Care, First Methodist Church, Houston. Texas. a church of 7000 members. He states his thesis on p. 16. ‘The role of religion in thee aging process is three-fold: (1) to acknowledge the spiritual contributions of retirees; (2) to make church membership meaningful for senior citizens; and (3) to guide retirees towards personal adjustment’. To support his thesis he draws on his personal experience, ranging from how to start, and conduct, a Golden Age Club to the question put to him by an older man: ‘Preacher, does a man ever understand his wife?’ (p. 84). There are chapters on relating the church program to the aged, marital and sex problems of the aged, homes for the aged, and emotional factors in the aging process. The author’s theological approach is liberal, there being little relationship drawn between the Gospel and the aged, and toward the end the book becomes little more than a reference book of agencies and programs for older persons. Yet it is plain that the author has had a great deal of experience in this area, and his bibliography is quite extensive and up-to-date. He would have made more of a contribution if he had expanded the concept of treating senior citizens as persons rather than types. ROBERTGALBRAITHLARIMER
SHOCK. Edited by S. G. HERSHEY. Little, Brown and Co., Boston, 1964. Price $11.50.
308 pp.
Indexed.
'SHOCK' is
a reprint of Vol. 2, No. 2 of the International Anesthesiology Clinics, a book series of four hard-cover issues per year for $22. In 16 articles, 28 authors review current Guyton and Growell relate ‘irreversibility’ concepts of shock pathogenesis and therapy. to myocardial failure, and Zweifach emphasizes the role of the reticula-endothelial system in shock resistance. Shires et al. demonstrate depletion of available extracellular extravascular fluid in hemorrhagic shock, which can be corrected by crystalloidal supplements to colloidal volume replacement. Lillehei et af. focus on the role of the small intestine in shock, and The importance of microcirculatory failure the use of adrenal corticosteroids in therapy. (Hershey), hepatic factors (Selkurt), endogenous vasoactive materials (Levy and Blattberg), metabolic changes (Levenson, Nagler and Einheber), autolytic enzymes (Janoff), and endotoxin (Frank) are reviewed. Therapeutic aims with anesthetics (Baez and Orkin), vasodilators (Nickerson) vasopressors and adrenal corticosteroids (Udhoji, Weil and Sambhi) are reviewed, and the management of traumatic shock (Mazzia and Rappaport) is outlined. Although the reviews are current, concise, and relatively complete, cardiac shock, intravascular erythrocyte aggregation (sludge), and therapy with buffers, plasma substitutes, and Objections to corticosteroid therapy and applicability hyperbaric oxygenation are neglected. of the ‘irreversibility’ concept to clinical shock are not discussed. It is difficult to reconcile the contradictory findings of eminent investigators performing similar studies. The conflicting conclusions testify to the complexity of shock, unsuitability of animal models, and difficulty of clinical studies. Perhaps the only therapeutic regimen universally accepted is ‘Constant bedside attendance by a task force of senior, well-oriented and well-informed physicians who give up all other responsibilities and duties, and devote their thoughts and efforts entirely to the problems of the one, single patient in shock’. (Frank.) In summary, ‘Shock’ is a current review of the diverse concepts of the pathogenesis and treatment of animal and clinical hemorrhagic, traumatic, septic, and endotoxin shock. The conflicting results and conclusions may be frustrating to those unfamiliar with the low level of reproducibility of shock studies. W. L. THOMPSON
CARDIOVASCULAR SURGERY 1963. (American Heart Association Monograph NO. 7.) Edited by F. A. SIMEONE. The American Heart Association, Inc., New York, 1964. 180 pp. Not indexed. Price $3.00. THIS publication is a supplement to Circulafion, Vol. 29, April 1964, and is a collection of The subjects papers by outstanding men in the field of cardiovascular surgery and physiology. of the papers include prosthetic valve replacement, artificial hearts, homotransplantation of cardiac valves, the use of hyperbaric oxygenation in infants with congenital heart disease, coronary artery surgery, pacemakers, peripheral vascular surgery, and others. Two articles,