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Paravertebral block used to be thought of as belonging to the domain of the vascular surgeon, who would use it as a preoperative test for sympathectomies or employ it for the relief of vasospastic disturbance occurring during the acute vascular occlusions. Professor Mandl has long been a student in this field; in fact, he published a little known monograph on this subject twenty-five years ago. The present volume is a greatly extended body of observations, gathered under difficult conditions in Vienna and later in Jerusalem.
The internist will be greatly interested in the use of this method as a differential diagnostic procedure in painful visceral conditions. More than that, the method has therapeutic value, since single or repeated injections of procaine hydrochloride into the appropriate sympathetic ganglions are described to have value. The chapters on the results of paravertebral injections in angina pectoris, paroxysmal tachycardia and essential hypertension are especially