The intense focus of the past several years on the cardia and its problems continues to encourage the production of monographs. This one comes from Baltimore, Maryland and Bristol, England; it is a multi-authored brief presentation of the subject from a strictly clinical point of view.
There is, as would be natural, great agreement among the nine authors, so that the material is presented in a rather pat fashion. The discussions are wholly noncritical. The reader is left with the feeling that the authors believe most of the questions have been answered and that the age of cardial controversy has come to an end.
This didactic approach is confusing in many areas to those who have made a study of the subject; no doubt it will prove misleading to those who have not. But the authors are experienced observers—experts—and the reader wouldn't want them to write anything but what they