Textbook of regional anesthesia and acute pain management. Admir Hadzic, editor. New York: McGraw-Hill Medical, 2007 (xviii + 1259 pp). ISBN 978 0 07 144906 X.

In this text, Hadzic aims to provide the scientific basis for the practice of regional anaesthesia, integrating it into the multimodal approach to acute pain management. He has selected 126 contributors, most of whom are American, to write the 83 chapters, nearly all of which are multiauthored.

The result is a well coordinated treatise on every aspect of regional anaesthesia, serving as an excellent introduction to the postgraduate study of the subject. No topic is ignored — community practice, the austere environment, and the principles of statistical methods of research are unique inclusions. As well, the new techniques of ultrasound-guided nerve blocks are well covered.

The management of postoperative pain introduces latest concepts including multimodal analgesia (although the organisation of an acute pain service has a rather rigid North American approach).

The book is very well laid out, punctuated with coloured boxes containing “Clinical pearls” and tabular summaries. It is profusely illustrated with anatomical diagrams, photographs of positioned patients, equipment and some anatomical dissections.

While these break up the text into easily readable bites, the photographs are occasionally overdone; repetitive images showing slightly different needle positions add little to the clear descriptions. Some anatomical drawings are too diagrammatical and do not give an easy understanding of the point being made.

A final minor criticism: there are slight inaccuracies in the description of the surface anatomy of some nerve blocks, particularly those of the ilioinguinal and iliohypogastric nerves, and of the greater occipital nerve.

A newcomer to the art of regional anaesthesia needs three guides — clear textbooks, access to accurate recent concepts and helpful teachers. This textbook admirably fills the first two requirements.