This book is a compilation of common and uncommon surgical and ancillary techniques that we have found useful in the multiorgan transplantation pro gram at the University of Minnesota. Descriptions of these techniques are not available at a single source elsewhere. Use the book as a teaching aid, a source of workable techniques, and as a reference for individuals with relatively little experience in a particular area of transplantation. Because of the varying levels of expertise of our readers, vascular access is described in exquisite detail, as it is aimed at an audience of individuals who want to learn the fine points about how to prolong the function of shunts. The chapter on organ preservation is aimed at the surgeon or beginning technician who must learn how to do it from scratch--even the catalogue numbers of the necessary equipment are included. In contrast the chapters on heart, liver, and pancreas transplantation, while omitting fine points of suture technique, concentrate on the essential principles and safeguards. Individuals contemplating such transplants are presumably already schooled in the fine points of surgical technique. The chapters on cadaver organ donation are perhaps the most innovative. They represent our attempt to reorganize organ donation in a way that will provide the greatest usefulness of each donor as a source for multiple organs for transplantation. We hope that the book will become available to centers that, while not performing liver, pancreas, or heart transplants, wish to serve as donation centers.
