Saunders' manual of critical care

Abstract

J. A. Kruse, Mitchell P. Fink, Richard Carlson (Eds) Elsevier Science, 2003. £57.95 In recent years, a plethora of textbooks and manuals aimed at the intensive care resident has been published, and these books vary significantly in format and price. Saunders' Manual of Critical Care is a mid-sized textbook with obvious North American credentials. Predictably, drug names and biochemical units have a distinctly transatlantic flavour. The book is arranged in themed sections. In the first part, there are five problem-based chapters that discuss clinical problems frequently encountered by the intensive care unit trainee. These are dealt with methodically, but the list is not inclusive enough to be widely useful and there is some overlap with other sections. There follow several chapters grouped together according to organ system or discipline including a large section on poisoning. The text is concise and functional with numerous lists detailing everything from differential diagnoses to therapeutic approach. Each chapter presents a rapid overview of a topic with key facts and top tips (or ‘pearls’) highlighted in the text. The contents are up to date and relevant to current practice with short reference lists at the end of each chapter. Algorithms are included in some chapters but there are little in the way of figures and illustrations to accompany the text. There are sections encompassing commonly-used drugs, practical procedures and monitoring that follow the disease-orientated chapters. Overall, the layout is simple and clear with blank space at the end of most chapters to add information. The didactic style will not be to everyone's liking and there is not much for the reader that prefers prose. The book should, however, meet the day-to-day needs of most individuals training in intensive care medicine in the UK. Saunders' Manual of Critical Care may fail to appeal to a wide audience in the UK and could struggle to find a niche. The potential purchaser is faced with a familiar dilemma, i.e. detail vs. practical utility vs. cost. The ‘Manual’ is competing with a number of established titles popular among trainees and is priced somewhere between the pocket-size manuals and larger reference books. It is undoubtedly comprehensive for its size but is less easy to stow or transport than the smaller pocket texts. Inevitably, in the context of these more affordable competitors, price may also prove to be an issue.