A general scheme for mass renormalization of the electron self-energy
in strong nuclear fields is developed. In second order the results agr
ee with those recently obtained by Labzowsky and Mitrushenkov [Phys. R
ev. A 53, 3029 (1996)], and, in particular, it is shown that the extra
counterterm observed by these authors appears quite naturally in the
more general scheme developed here. [S1050-2947(98)08407-8]