Trainee surgeons and physicians often have great difficulty in grasping the clinical problems related to disturbances of normal function. This is because electrolytes and acid base metabolism are generally poorly understood at undergraduate level. Their understanding is crucial to in-patient management following surgery or trauma when a patient loses a lot of fluid and salt, for example by suffering severe burns. Consequently, this book begins by revising basic physiology and leads into a discussion of clinical problems in a simple, well-illustrated and easy-to-understand manner.