This single-volume work on "general thoracic surgery" (as distinct from cardiac surgery) has by now become an established text. The first edition was pretty much the exclusive product of Dr Shields' own abundant experience and insight. Among other things, the first volume gave wide currency to the very term "general thoracic surgery."
The second edition was perhaps most noteworthy for the expansion to include esophageal disease. This third edition appears six years following its predecessor and 17 years after the first edition. It is a multiauthored text, as was its immediate predecessor, and continues to expand its subject matter.
The excellent anatomic sections from the previous edition are improved and extended to include lymphatic drainage of the esophagus and the embryology and anatomy of the diaphragm. I felt the chapters on physiology of the lungs were a bit perfunctory, but that is perhaps understandable in a book of this extent.