The Illustrated Handbook of Cardiac Surgery is adapted from the Second Edition of the color illustrated Manual of Cardiac Surgery (Springer-Verlag, 1995). The Illustrated Handbook of Cardiac Surgery communicates all the important informa tion, but eliminates the detailed explanation of judgment and technique that is relevant only to cardiac surgeons or other individuals intensely interested in these details. The chapters covering operations explain the basic concepts and fundamentals of the operations. A selection of the most important biblio graphic sources follows each chapter, but are not...