TEXTBOOK OF CRITICAL CARE e-DITION, 5TH EDITION

TEXTBOOK OF CRITICAL CARE e-DITION, 5TH EDITION Editors: Mitchell P. Fink, MD; Edward Abraham, MD; Jean-Louis Vincent, PhD; Patrick M. Kochanek, MD Bibliographic Data: Elsevier, 2005. Imprint: W.B. Saunders Company. ISBN: 1-4160-0262-6, 2358 pp, hard cover, $299.00. Reviewer's Expert Opinion: Description: This is the 5th edition of an internationally based multidisciplinary textbook of adult and pediatric critical care. Included is access to Web-based updates and a CD-ROM providing Internet links to abstracts for chapter references. Purpose: A comprehensive review of adult critical care is provided. Expanded coverage in this edition brings numerous new chapters and an editor with increased emphasis on pediatric critical care. Audience: Senior practitioners, fellows, and others with an interest in critical care are an appropriate audience for this work. Editors and authors represent an international group of leaders from North America and Western Europe. Scattered contributions, however, come from around the world. Features: The book is divided into 265 chapters. In addition to standard organ-based and procedural topics, significant emphasis is given to basic science with a section including discussion of gene expression, endothelial and cellular function, coagulation, oxidative injury, receptors, and metabolic cascades. An expanded section on organization, ethics, and outcomes reflects growing emphasis on these areas in critical care literature. Chapters are clearly written with type font and headings allowing identification of key points. Highlights of each chapter are included on the first page. Complete references are not listed with each chapter; rather, an extremely brief annotated bibliography notes key citations. The complete reference list is found on a compact disk enclosed within the back cover of the book. Illustrations are infrequent, but line drawings are of excellent quality. The table of contents groups chapters according to subject matter and provides authorship. An exhaustive subject index of approximately 100 pages concludes. Assessment: This is the best of the comprehensive textbooks of critical care medicine currently available. Web-based updates will prolong application of this text in the management of contemporary problems. Illustration quantity and quality can be improved. It is inconvenient needing a computer to examine the references in each chapter, as these could not be identified without the aid of the compact disk. Reviewer: David J. Dries, MD University of Minnesota Medical School