Customer Reviews

Handbook of Evidence-Based Critical Care

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book is a great resource for residents on critical care rotations in MICU, SICU, CICU and emergency recess room.

I am an emergency medicine resident and rotate through all of these areas of critical care, and this book has exactly what you need, no more and no less. It gives you a quick understanding of the physiological rationale and then gives assesment and treatment information all backed up with current references from statndard of care setting articles and studies. This is not just some guys opinion, everything is backed up by the literature. It is refreshing to learn things the right way (i.e. evidence based) the first time around.

This book is written in a very strait forward and memorable fasion, and is very practical, making it possible to be read multiple times in a rotation.

I see another reviewer gave this book a three stars and said that the book did not have references. Well, he's wrong, and I think he does not understand the scope of this book, it's a handbook to be used at the bedside, not a textbook to be referenced. This book goes beyond anything I could have asked for in a critical care hand book. It's awsome, and it will help you treat very sick patients and get results.

I had briefly paged through a colleague's copy, finding an impressive and concise discourse on several topics before purchasing my own copy. Now I've found that there are a bewildering number of topics, each cleanly discussed with clinical pearls identified and messages that keep you on track. There are several chapters that take on resuscitation, these are phenomenal.
Marik isn't a huge fan of EGDT, he is quick to strike at CVP monitoring, blood product transfusion, and doesn't seem to be enamored with ScVO2 either. His discourse on Lactated Ringer's is classic and excellent.
Overall, this is an excellent buy. It is well priced and contains a large amount of distilled information, ready for implementation at the bedside.
Highly Recommended

In the era of super-fast information needs, we needs an efficient, fast and quickly downloadable information in all areas of intensive care medicine. Most textbook fails this test when you need the best available evidence in a quickly accessible manner. Marik's book is an exception; it offers a great short cut to the latest evidence...fast! You don't need to read those big volume intensive care textbook as preliminary background reading to gain a basic understanding of the topic area. Marik uses a straight-forward, cut to the chase writing style, so you get an immediate grasp of the topic within minutes. Not only that, he present the cream of the best evidence. His ability to present the best evidence is aided by the fact that he publishes a large number of systematic reviews himself (the reader should PubMed him to check his publication record if in doubt). This is a writing style best suited to the iPhone generation...where one gets the best evidence in the shortest time, with information presented with clarity and minimal junk. I feel this is the greatest strength of this book.

Of course, the inevitable limitation of a single author book is the potential personal bias, because it is impossible to know all the topic area equally well. However, the author is an all-round evidence based medicine clinician and I feel he has made the best effort in presenting information after considering the totality of the existing evidence.

I have been a physician for more than a decade, with reading this book , bring to the bedside practice very smoothly, and also one of the few single author written book that has decribed clinical practice with the detail support of basic medical sciences .
one of the few best books I have ever read , beside originally written editon of " Cope's Early diagnosis of acute abdomen " .Handbook of Evidence-Based Critical Care

A book on evidence-based medicine that lacks bibliographical references in the text. I expected bigger precision. Sincerely, it defrauded me.