Main description:

This is a fascinating short text which helps paediatric gastroenterologists to fully understand the development and future direction of their specialty by placing current clinical practice in its historical perspective. An opening chapter by Sir David Innes Williams analyses the factors which influence the development of paediatric specialties in general. Subsequent chapters by experts of international renown focus on key disorders and the major developments which helped to define paediatric gastroenterology as a specialty in its own right. This book is concise and very readable - will appeal to all with an interest in medical history. It contains specific chapters on all major disorders written by an appropriate expert, and includes full references for each chapter.

Contents:

Why do paediatric specialties arise? * Suction biopsy * Coeliac disease * Inflammatory bowel disease * Liver biopsy * The history of liver and bowel transplantation * Nutrition as therapy * Oral rehydration therapy and its influence on the development of paediatric gastroenterology * Women pioneers of nutrition and paediatric gastroenterology in the UK * Intractable diarrhoea of infancy: an evolving concept * Intestinal allergy: the impact of mucosal immunology * Molecular biology and gene therapy * Pro-biotics in health and disease * The organization of the specialty: a brief overview.