Customer Reviews

Manual of Intensive Care Medicine: With Annotated Key References (Little, Brown Spiral Manual)

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

 

 

Very succinct and easy to read. Is a smaller version of Irwin's critical care book. Much better than the Washington Manual for Critical Care.

Several changes from the previous edition not mentioned in the product info include :

A. Overdoses and poisonings has been separated and placed in a separate pocket manual - although it still retains several chapters on common OD's. I would have preferred the editors remove all chapters except the "general considerations" chapter and refer readers to the sister manual. The sister manual is excellent but i would like to see expanded coverage. Also the units are non-SI (eg iron levels) and BUN rather than urea etc. The envenomations section is unhelpful for Australian readers.

B. The prose style of the previous edition has been replaced by point-form.

C. Resuscitation guidelines are outdated - still refering to the 2000 guidlines.

D. Procedures/techniques section still has little on non-invasive cardiac monitoring eg pulse contour analysis techniques

E. Coagulation chapter could be updated regarding tissue factor pathway - this is dealt with better in Barash/Cullen/Stoelting.

Remains a good ICU pocket book & worth the updated edition.

Great handbook to carry around the Unit during rotations. I use Marino for home study and this for slow times on the Wards. It's pretty dense but has all the important information from the huge textbook by the same author.

Recommendation : Excellent book & if I lost it, would buy it again.

Pros :
* Practical book with useful tables. Clearly written & organized.
* Unlike most "pocket books", not excessively concise.
* Selected readings with descriptive comments of each at the end of the chapter (including "classic" articles).

Cons :
* outdated & overdue for new edition (this is the 3rd edn, published in 2000)
* competing with easily accessible up-to-date reviews & guidelines available over the internet

Usefulness : concise overview of a topic that can be read in minutes prior to consulting on patients in casualty/wards.

Suggested Improvements : internet-based rather than paper-based, with links to selected readings, & frequently updated.

Alternatives : I don't own any other ICU pocket books as I've been very happy with this one (& generally dislike "pocket" books anyway)

About myself : Registrar in Intensive Care & Anaesthesia with 3 1/2 years experience (12 months Intensive Care, 2 1/2 years Anaesthesia). Graduated 6 and 1/2 years ago MB,BS University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia. I own the larger 2 volume set by Irwin & Rippe also. I have owned both the pocket book & the reference books for 3 or 4 years.