ELECTROLYTES BODY FLUIDS AND ACID-BASED BALANCE

Trainee surgeons and physicians often have great difficulty in grasping the clinical problems related to disturbances of normal function. This is because electrolytes and acid-base metabolism are generally poorly understood at undergraduate level. Their understanding is crucial to in-patient management following surgery or the trauma when a patient loses a lot of fluid and salt, for example by suffering severe burns. This book begins by revising the basic physiology and leads into a discussion of clinical problems.