Handbook of Obstetric Anaesthesia

Abstract

Mark C. Norris Lippincott Williams and Wilkins, 1999, 546 pp. Based on the Second Edition of Obstetric Anaesthesia, this handbook claims to be ‘more than just an abridged version’ of the above and includes current approaches to care as well as the author's own management preferences. The layout of the book is indeed similar and is divided logically into pre-operative, intra-operative and postoperative management. All aspects of anaesthetic care of the parturient are covered, with some minor repetitions. There are detailed accounts of the physiology of pregnancy, pre-operative evaluation (including useful summary tables), perinatal physiology and pharmacology and the anatomy of the epidural space, with good illustrations of the latter. Regional and general anaesthesia techniques are well described for labour and operative delivery. Cardiac disease is dealt with in detail, although there are only four pages devoted to anaesthesia for the patient with coexisting pulmonary disease. Management of all the major complications of both pregnancy and anaesthesia are dealt with comprehensively in the subsequent chapters. This handbook is packed full of well-researched information and is concisely written, for the most part in note-form. Thus it lends itself to quick reference or the occasional browse through a selected topic and some sections would be particularly useful to final FRCA candidates. The bibliography at the end of each chapter is necessarily short and highly selective but can be cross-referenced to its larger counterpart. The book should appeal to obstetric anaesthetists of all grades, but will it suit a British audience as well as its target one in the USA? Apart from some minor differences in drug nomenclature (meperidine for pethidine) and usage: intrathecal and epidural diamorphine are mentioned only in passing, while chloroprocaine is recommended for operative vaginal delivery, many of the principles of management are the same. A few chapters have been omitted which might have been of interest to the British reader, such as those on fetal surgery, legal and ethical issues, the organisation of an obstetric anaesthesia service and some notes on the recently published national guidelines for obstetric anaesthesia in the USA. The handbook's small size makes it a conveniently portable mine of information suitable for the briefcase or (large!) pocket of any itinerant obstetric anaesthetist. In our opinion, it certainly deserves a place on the library shelves of the obstetric anaesthesia department.