Abstract

Over the past forty years transplantation has developed from a laboratory based experimental procedure to a clinical commonplace. Transplantation raises issues of patient screening and selection, quality of life for recipients, living donors and their families, cognitive changes associated with transplantation, ethical considerations, and the impact of immunological and pharmacological changes associated with the procedure. This complex of issues affects clinicians from a wide range of disciplines and is the focus of consultation-liaison psychiatry and this book. Pittsburgh, where many of the contributors are based, was and is still a pioneering center for organ transplantation. Dr. Thomas Starzl, who gives an overview of the field, is one of the founding fathers of transplantation surgery.