It is a great pleasure to have the opportunity to edit a new volume of "Assisted Circulation". In the past 5 years there have been many changes in the philosophy of assisted circulation. There have been a large number of clinical application- of left ventricular assist devices, biventricular assist devices, and total artificial hearts; one artificial heart was implanted electively in December, 1982, in a patient with an end-stage cardiomyopathy. A...