New approach to neurology | |
Practical neurology. |
In the preface,
the editor states that this book has an unorthodox, problem-based approach, and is intended to overcome the misrepresentation of neurology as esoteric, other-worldly, and difficult. While these are deserving aims, the book falls short of the desired outcome in many ways. In its attempt to provide practical, uncomplicated guidelines to the management of everyday clinical problems, there is a loss of coherent style. The book suffers from an absence of a theoretical basis and consequently presents as a collection of facts. This perception is heightened by the rather dense presentation. There are small margins and small font, with ink filling most of the page. Certainly thumbing through the book does not give an invitation to read on. Despite these negative points, there are some quite useful features. Dealing with specific clinical problems, rather than theoretical systems, is certainly an interesting and sensible to approach. Most of the authors are experienced clinicians, and this is apparent in the advice they provide.They address some difficult issues which are often left out of clinical text books, yet are everyday neurological problems. These are covered under titles such as: "Approach to the patient with bladder, bowel or sexual dysfunction", and "Approach to the patient with gait disturbance and recent falls". The real difficulty with this book is recommending how it might be used. It is too big and too extensive to use as a ready-reference on the ward. Conversely, it is not complete enough and certainly not inviting enough to use as a comprehensive reference text. Nevertheless, trying to use the problem-based approach is worthwhile, and the recommended readings are useful to augment the information provided. Malcolm K Horne
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