Since 1902, when Alexes Carrel published his original technique for anastomosis of small blood vessels and transplanting visceral organs, the discipline of surgery has hungered for a definitive monograph on reconstruction by microsurgical techniques. This fine book attempts, with 65 prominent contributors in 48 chapters, to achieve such a review. The book is divided into three parts: basic science, donor composite tissue, and reconstruction. Each part has about 16 chapters, but the main portion, and the most exciting part, deals with microsurgical reconstruction at various recipient sites (head and neck, thorax and breast, upper extremity, and lower extremity).
The section on basic science refreshingly reviews the anatomy and hemodynamics of microcirculation, as well as the problems of intravascular coagulation and the metabolic consequences of ischemia and hypoxia. One section attempts to explain the rationale of various experimental procedures using extremely high magnification (×5,000) microphotographs and electron micrographs (×15,000). Most of