Cope's Early Diagnosis of the Acute Abdomen / Edition 22

by William Silen

Overview

This classic text is much beloved by medical students and physicians-in-training throughout the English-speaking world, as its many editions indicate. It is chock full of the pearls of clinical wisdom that students and practitioners treasure, and many of these lessons apply to medicine in general. The book was well characterized by a reviewer of an earlier edition for The New England Journal of Medicine: 'If only one book about surgery could be made available to physicians from all specialties, it should probably be Silen's recent revision of Cope's Early Diagnosis of the Acute
Abdomen. Since the book first appeared, it has remained the classic treatise on the initial approach to abdominal pain.' Because acute, severe abdominal pain is still a common problem whose misdiagnosis can result in quick death, each generation of beginning physicians is faced with the urgency of learning to make a diagnosis in this high-anxiety situation, and they appreciate the wise, humane, precisely detailed guidance offered by Cope and Silen. For the 22nd Edition, Dr. Silen has again updated the text in a respectful but significant way. He has added a chapter on the increasing disorder of diverticulitis, reexamines the use of analgesics, emphasizes the costs of over-testing, and updates all recommendations regarding trauma, radiologic studies, and therapeutic recommendations.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780199730452
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	01/12/2010
Edition description:	Twenty-Second Edition
Pages:	320
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.10(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

William Silen, MD
Johnson and Johnson Professor of Surgery, Emeritus
Harvard University Medical School
Boston, MA

Table of Contents

1. The principles of diagnosis in acute abdominal disease

Editorial Reviews

3 Stars from Doody

Reviewer: Mary-Margaret Brandt, MD (University of Michigan Medical School)
Description: This is the 20th edition of the classic treatise on the evaluation of the patient with acute abdominal pain. The previous edition was published in 1996; the first edition was published in 1921. The author is the Johnson and Johnson Distinguished Professor of Surgery at Harvard Medical School.
Purpose: The purpose is to instruct medical students and junior residents in the initial assessment and diagnosis of abdominal pain. In this era of ever-advancing technology, the objective is the clinical assessment of the patient.
Audience: This book is aimed at medical students and residents of all specialties who see patients with abdominal pain, whether in the emergency room or outpatient setting. This is a beloved text in the library of many physicians and surgeons. Both surgeons and primary care providers will also benefit from the practical approach of this book.
Features: In this text, using the patients' history and physical examination in arriving at the correct diagnosis is repeatedly emphasized. While the emphasis is on clinical judgment, the judicious use of appropriate diagnostic tests is also well covered.
Assessment: While this book should be on the bookshelf of every physician, this edition is essentially unchanged from the previous one.

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