The year was 1943. As a third-year medical student at Stanford, I was about to witness the beginning of a medical miracle. Dr. Arthur Bloomfield, Professor of Medicine, had selected my patient, a middle aged man, who was dying of acute pneumococcal pneumonia, as one of the first patients to receive miniscule doses (by today's standards) of his meagre supply of a new drug - penicillin. The patient's response amazed everyone especially this impressionable medical student. The rest of the story is history. With one stroke, the introduction of penicillin removed from the medical scene the 'friend...

The present volume provides overviews of aging and changes in renal function over time; it devotes chapters to renal parenchymal disease and urinary tract infections; and the sections on geriatric urology cover urinary incontinence and urinary-tract neoplasm, including prostatic cancer. The book summarizes current information on renal replacement therapy in the elderly and reviews such important topics as hemodialysis, peritoneal dialysis, fluid and acid-base abnormalities as they are seen in older patients, and transplantation in the elderly. Concerning medical care of older nephrology...