Real-life critical care medicine

The practice of intensive care medicine is forever evolving to meet the demands of critically ill patients. Of particular importance has been the recent increasing advocacy for critical care outreach through improved surveillance outside intensive care units, and the provision of medical emergency teams.

The authors of this book have been pioneers in this evolutionary process, and in this second edition the reader is presented with a very practical, commonsense approach to the care of the acutely unwell patient.

The format is very easy to follow, and information about both generic and specific aspects of critical care medicine is easily accessed. The major emphasis of the book, however, is on general, practical topics rather than comprehensive reviews of diseases or specific organ failures (although these are very adequately covered). A junior hospital doctor wanting to refresh his or her knowledge of fluid and electrolyte therapy is as well served as a consultant in a peripheral centre who needs to urgently review planning priorities before transporting a sick patient.

The text is concise and contains the right balance between practical and theoretical issues. There are troubleshooting sections at the end of selected chapters, and there is a further reading section at the end of every chapter.

Clinical intensive care and acute medicine will be used widely by postgraduate medical trainees rotating through intensive care but will also be a very welcome companion for critical care vocational trainees and consultant intensive care physicians.

Although there is a chapter on quality assurance and clinical audit, there is relatively little information about complications. This is partly due to the deliberate omission of descriptions of procedural techniques.

Importantly, the authors have managed to provide an authoritative, practical guide to clinical decision making in this rapidly changing area of acute medicine.

Larry P McNicol Director of Anaesthesia, Austin Hospital, VIC