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 great deal of help is necessary in editing a book. I want especially to thank the Austrian Research Council and the University of Innsbruck for their support of my work. I am most grateful to my co-workers R. Schistek, I. Koller, J. Hager, and R. Nessler, and especially to my secretary, W. Kirchner, who had the most secretarial load ofthe editorial work. I would also like to thank Dr. J. Wieczorek, Mrs. M. Schafer, Mrs. M. Griindler, and the Springer staff who gave this second volume an attractive format and made it accurate as usual. It was with great sorrow that we learned of the sad death of Dr. Emery Nyilas in June 1984, who played a great part in the development of artificial hearts. I hope that this second volume will also raise new items for discussion, resulting in new concepts, so that the third volume can introduce new devices and report on more clinical applications.