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Multiple Organ Failure Edited by AE Baue, E Faist and DE Fry Springer Verlag, Germany 2000 ISBN 0387987339 £124.00
‘Multiple organ failure’ is edited by three well-known and respected figures in the field and is subtitled with the all-encompassing addition - Pathophysiology, Prevention and Therapy. The book would make a valuable addition to any library within a hospital, which offers support to the critically ill patient.
As is described in the preface, this book is actually an amalgamation and updating of three previous books on multiple organ failure - all edited by the same editors. This current book was intended to be launched around the same time as the excellent meetings, which are regularly held in Munich and organised by one of the editors - Professor Eugen Faist and his colleagues. The book is designed to be a complete and practical reference for those managing the critically ill. It aims to provide a sound basic science background required to understand the process of organ failure, as well as to provide practical guidance on how to manage patients to prevent organ failure and treatment options for those that have developed organ failure. This is indeed all encompassing. The book has 712 pages and chapter titles range from ‘Intensive Care Monitoring’ on the one hand to Interleukin-11: potential therapeutic activity in systematic inflammatory states’ on the other. By and large the book achieves these aims and there is something in the book which will be of great use to anyone who deals with patients who are critically ill. However, to my mind it is perhaps a little too much all encompassing.
The basic science chapters are generally very well written and up-to-date but the book will suffer, as most similar books do, because of the rapid advances that are being made in this area. The short chapter entitled ‘Apoptosis’ could have been given more prominence and perhaps a little more editing would have expanded this chapter and removed the many similar paragraphs about apoptosis which occur elsewhere in the book. Another minor point, at one point interleukin-1 receptor antagonist is covered in the section on pro-inflammatory cytokines. However, as I said - there is something for everyone - and I enjoyed learning about TWEAK, LIGHT and APRIL which are all members of the TNF superfamily of cytokines.
Chapter 27 to 31 cover the more practical aspects of the surgery of the critically ill. The vexed questions of on whom, when and how to surgically intervene in the critically ill patients and those with sepsis, systematic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS) and multi-organ dysfunction syndrome (MODS) are well covered here. These chapters should be widely read by surgeons who work with the critically ill patient as well as any doctor who manages such patients within the intensive care unit. It is for this reason that the book should be in the hospital library and I am sure that anyone who borrows it to read these chapters will be stimulated to read more elsewhere in the book about the basic science of multiple organ failure.
Nigel Webster, Aberdeen Royal Infirmary
Oxford Illustrated Companion to Medicine, 3rd Edition Edited by S Lock, J Last and GM Dunea Oxford University Press, Oxford ISBN 0192629506 £39.50
I was pleased to be asked to review this monumental new edition of the Oxford Companion to Medicine. It is a massive tome of just under one thousand pages.
This is a magnificent work of art, which has a multitude of contributors from many parts of the world and is edited by Stephen Lock (UK), John Last (Canada) and George Dunea (USA). There are three Emeritus Editors, John Walton, Paul P Beeson and Jeremiah A Barandoness. The team had no mean task, as there are two hundred and forty-eight contributors and an infinity of subjects.
The editors make it clear that this is not a textbook or an encyclopaedia and is addressed to the interested lay reader as well as the medical professional. The format is designed for browsing and there are multitudes of treasures embracing history, science, geography and politics to name but a few. There are potted biographies of a host of people from early Greece to the present day. There is an amazing plethora of subjects and it is a wealth of facts and theories. My journey through the volume was a protracted delight but I cannot pretend to have read every contribution. However, I can say that every page of my browse has had both interest and value.
The reader will set out upon a long, fascinating and infinitely rewarding voyage and will develop increased strength in his arms as he handles several kilos of wisdom. It is a volume that will give an endless enjoyment to a wide spectrum of readers and it will give satisfaction to the reader whether at home or in the library.
Professor Patrick Boulter, Former President of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh