Hemostasis and Thrombosis, 6th Edition

Book Preface

The preface to the first edition of Hemostasis and Thrombosis: Basic Principles and Clinical Practice discussed the “hemostatic system” as the product of a multimillion year evolutionary process that has resulted in a finely balanced mechanism that is poised for hemostasis yet constrained to ensure the continuous flow of blood. The complexity of the system was illustrated by the factor VIII: von Willebrand factor (vWF) complex, a protein complex that serves as a nexus for platelet adhesion, blood coagulation, and endothelial cell function and whose dysfunction is a common cause of bleeding and perhaps thrombosis as well.

As with the first edition, the sixth edition of Hemostasis and Thrombosis: Basic Principles and Clinical Practice “reviews the biochemistry and physiology of hemostasis, as well as the pathophysiology of thrombosis, and considers the diagnosis and treatment of both.”

However, over the three decades since the publication of the first edition, an exponential growth in the breadth and scope of new information together with increasing demands of clinical practitioners has mandated substantive changes in the book’s content and organization, an evolution in its own right.Hemostasis has been dissected down to the atomic level and the sequencing of the human genome is providing new opportunities to understand the molecular basis for thrombotic disorders that remain the major causes of morbidity and mortality in our current society. Thus, the sixth edition is a distinctly different product in comparison with the first edition. We have striven to assemble a textbook that is current and complete, giving both basic and clinical scientists access, in a single place, to current concepts about hemostasis and thrombosis. We humbly acknowledge that the current edition will be quickly outdated as the acquisition of knowledge continues at a rapid pace beyond its publication. Indeed, it is tantalizing to consider how subsequent editions over the next 30 years will reshape our views about hemostasis and thrombosis. We hope that thoughtful readers will discern the gaps in our present knowledge and devise ways to close them.