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will be a useful addition to our departmental librarywhere we can use it to resolve irritating queries raised byour more enquiring trainees and perhaps to assist inex-perienced researchers to clarify their thinking beforerushing into ill-conceived projects.

R. SneydPlymouth, UK

E-mail: Robert.sneyd@pms.ac.uk

doi:10.1093/bja/ael348

Respiratory Emergencies , 1st Edn. A. M. Fein,S. Kamholz, and D. Ost (editors). Published by HodderArnold, London. Pp. 576; indexed; illustrated. Price125.00; US$ 223.00. ISBN 10-0-340-81195-1.

Some books have a dened readership and are writtenwith a clear purpose. These targets (reader or purpose) areoften identied in the introduction or foreword. This book has neither foreword nor introduction and as I read,I could not be sure that there was a clear theme to the

book as a whole. However, the publisher says the book isintended to be a comprehensive practical reference to themanagement of acute respiratory problems in the hospitalsetting. It is a new book, with authors mainly from theUSA. Despite the title, it is certainly not exclusively abook on emergencies. About half the chapters could beperhaps be considered acute medicine, so these areperhaps physicians emergencies. From the point of viewof the anaesthetist, schooled in events that take seconds orminutes to develop, this is not sharp end stuff. Forexample, although the interesting chapter on drug-induced

Medical Management of the Surgical Patient. A Textbook of Perioperative Medicine , 4th Edn. M. F. Lubin, (Editorin Chief), R. B. Smith,, IIIT. F. Dodson,, N. O. Spell, andH. K. Walker, (editors). Published by CambridgeUniversity Press, Cambridge, UK. pp. 813; indexed; illus-trated. Price 85.00; US$ 150.00. ISBN 13 978-0-521-82800-0.

This is the latest edition of this book which has been fullyrevised, rewritten, and updated. The book is divided intotwo main sections. The rst part deals mainly with whatthe authors call medical management and the second partdeals with specic surgical procedures and their individualcomplications. The various chapters are written by a totalof 130 different authors, the vast majority of whom camefrom Atlanta, GA, USA (the home of the editors). All thechapters have a list of references and suggestions forfurther reading.

The rst part of the book deals with medical manage-ment and work up of the patient for surgery. There aresections on cardiology, patients with hypertension, lungdisease, haematological disease, infections, renal, endo-crine, rheumatological, neurological disease as well assections on the obese patient, the elderly, psychiatric andthe peripartum patient. It was disappointing that thissection did not include a section on the use of goal-directed therapy for the high-risk surgical patient.This area of surgical management is now well researchedand well investigated and has been widely reportedin many international journals including surgical ones. Iwas also surprised that there was not a section on pre-operative cardiopulmonary exercise testing. These two

areas of perioperative care are the two areas where there isscope for improvement in surgical outcome and yetneither gets any sort of mention. I feel this was a majoromission.

The chapters in this rst section are comprehensive forthe subjects they cover, but limited. The rst chapterentitled Anaesthesia management of the surgical patientis a very simple overview of the anaesthesia for the surgi-cal trainee. As an anaesthetist, I found it was a littlelimited. I did, however, nd the chapter on EthicalConsiderations well worth reading. This rst section

reviewing the various medical systems and how to managetheir various problems during the perioperative period waswell written and comprehensive.

The second part of the book is made up of 93 chaptersdealing with individual potential complications associatedwith 93 different surgical operations. Some are quite short,but all give comprehensive information on potential

complications and how to deal with them. This section isobviously intended for junior surgical staff and givesguidance for them during the post-operative period.

If I were a junior surgical trainee, I think I would like toown this book or at very least be able to use it as a refer-ence when dealing with pre- and post-operative problems.However, whether an anaesthetic trainee would nd thebook quite as useful, I am not so sure. Most anaesthetictextbooks cover the same material as is presented in therst section and from a much more anaesthetic point of view and therefore of much greater use to the anaesthetictrainee. This book is clearly aimed at the surgical trainee,and although there are many areas where anaesthesia andsurgery interact, this book does not present the informationin a way that is the most useful for the anaesthetist in train-ing. Although the book may be useful addition to the well-stocked Anaesthetic Department library of large units, itwould not be one of my rst choices for inclusion for thoseDepartments whose budget is limited.

R. M. Grounds London, UK

E-mail: m.grounds@blueyonder.co.uk

doi:10.1093/bja/ael349

Book reviews

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