Critical Care Medicine: The Essentials » (4th Edition)

Marini, John J., MD (Univ of Minnesota); Wheeler, Arthur P., MD (Vanderbilt Univ)

Ideally suited for students in critical care rotations and residents, this concise, practical handbook presents the essentials of medical and surgical critical care in an easy-to-read format. The authors succinctly explain the pathophysiology underlying clinical disorders and the key principles of diagnosis and patient management, emphasizing cost-effective approaches.

The Fourth Edition includes Controversies in Critical Care boxes in many chapters, which briefly summarize opposing arguments on controversial points. Other highlights include enhanced discussion of CT for abdominal disorders, new ACLS guidelines, and new material on removable IVC filters, interventional radiologic techniques for GI bleeding, and use of vascular ultrasound.

David J. Dries

This is the second edition of a two-author, softbound introduction to critical care medicine. The first edition was published in 1989. The book provides a summary of pertinent problems and physiology for critical care with a review of diagnostic approaches and key management principles. The critical care trainee and practitioner seeking an overview are an appropriate audience for this work. All material is written by two senior critical care practitioners, one at the University of Minnesota, the other at Vanderbilt. Forty chapters are divided into three sections. The initial section describes techniques and methodology common to the management of any critical care patient. Emphasized are cardiopulmonary management, fluids and electrolytes, and administration issues. Medical and surgical emergencies are discussed in the remaining sections of this work. In the two final sections, the majority of attention is given to issues involving medical critical care. Chapters are clearly written with black-and-white illustrations of high quality. The references are not comprehensive, but cite work dating to within one year of publication. Where original work is not cited, pertinent reviews are indicated. Concluding are several appendixes with applicable formulas and normal values followed by a detailed index with separate citations for figures and tables. Reference cards summarizing the use of common ICU medications are inside the back cover. Marini and Wheeler provide an excellent overview of cardiopulmonary critical care in the second edition of this textbook. Chapters are succinct, with clear discussion and summary points concluding each presentation. The weakest portion of this workis the surgical section, covering material outside the acknowledged expertise of the authors. This material could be eliminated to allow greater emphasis on the strength of this work.