Over the years, transplantation has fascinated the scientific community as well as the general public for a variety of reasons:

• The development of transplantation has involved almost all medical specialities. In the history of medicine, there is perhaps no other example of such extensive co-operation and exchange of knowledge and experience among basic scientists, surgeons and physicians in achieving a common goal.

• The progress of transplantation has forced doctors to "rewrite" medical textbooks dealing with a great spectrum of post-transplantation issues, such as the physiology of transplanted organs, the recurrence of initial disease in the transplanted organs, and the complications arising from immunosuppressive drugs, infectious diseases and cancer. Other issues raised concern maternity, child development, geriatric medicine and ethical issues.

However, the history of this amazing field of modern medicine has never been thoroughly reported in a detailed textbook. History of Organ and Cell Transplantation covers this area of modern literature. It includes a foreword written by Lady Jean Medawar who is the wife of the late Sir Peter Medawar, Nobel Prize winner and first president of the International Transplantation Society.

Contents:

• The History of HLA and Transplantation Immunology (N L Reinsmoen & F E Ward)
• The History of Organ Donation and Sharing (G Kootstra)
• The History of the Concept of Brain Death and Organ Preservation (V E Papalois & A J Matas)
• The History of Kidney Transplantation (V E Papalois et al.)
• The History of Liver Transplantation (R Y Calne)
• The History of Pancreas Transplantation (D ER Sutherland & C G Groth)
• A Short History of the Development of Islet Transplantation (D WR Gray)
• The History of Intestinal Transplantation (K Abu-Elmagd)
• The History of Heart Transplantation and Heart Valve Transplantation (T J Kroshus & V R Kshettry)
• The History of Lung Transplantation (T J Kroshus & V R Kshettry)
• The History of Pediatric Solid Organ Transplantation (B Chavers)
• The History of Skin Transplantation (F T Rapaport & J Dausset)
• The History of Corneal Transplantation (C K Rostron)
• The History of Bone Marrow Transplantation (S R McCann)
• The History of Arm Transplantation (N S Hakim)
• The History of Xenotransplantation (R A Holzknecht & J L Platt)
• The History of Immunosuppressive Drugs (M Kamps)
• The History of Infectious Disease in Transplantation (B Madden)
• The History of Ethical Issues in Transplantation (R R Bollinger & J Sugarman)

"... I very much enjoyed reading the book and found it to be quite accurate and very informative. To my knowledge, there is no other book on the history of solid organ and cell transplantation. Therefore, this book is unique and should be in the library of most internists and surgeons working in the field of organ and cell transplantation."

"As a whole, the volume gives a good picture of how surgeons and scientists currently view the technical history of transplantation ... This book is an interesting starting point for anybody who wants to do research on the history of organ and cell transplantation."