Reviewer: Victoria A Saites, MD (University of Kentucky College of Medicine)
Description: This is the second edition of a quick reference guide to the perioperative management of neonates, infants, and children. The book covers basic physiology, perioperative care, practical procedures, pain management, medical and surgical subspecialties, syndromes and diseases, and medical emergencies. The book is structured with concise bulleted lists with a few tables, images, figures, and algorithms interspersed as supporting elements. The first edition was published in 2007.
Purpose: The purpose is to provide a quick, go-to guide to facilitate a framework for a perioperative care plan for a child. This is a worthy objective, as many anesthesia providers who care for pediatric patients do not have additional training in the field and/or may not encounter pediatric patients on a regular basis. The book also serves as a concise refresher on various practical and surgical procedures that may be quickly referenced prior to caring for a patient set to undergo one of these procedures. The book meets its objectives by concisely outlining the most important and noteworthy elements that should be incorporated into a specific care plan.
Audience: The audience is anesthesia providers caring for neonates, infants, and children. More specifically, the book targets students, residents, practitioners, and anesthetists who do not care for pediatric patients on a regular basis. Anesthetists who have additional training in pediatric anesthesiology or who care for pediatric patients on a regular basis may find this book too basic and of little clinical value except in very specific circumstances, such as during emergency situations when bedside confirmation of procedures or dosages of medications is needed or when performing a regional anesthetic that one does not often perform. However, anesthetists who do not have additional training in pediatric anesthesia or who do not care for pediatric patients on a regular basis may find the book informative and perhaps even absolutely necessary in the development of a safe care plan for their patients. The book targets experts and nonexperts alike, although to different degrees.
Features: The concise, bulleted format of the book is perhaps the best way to format a go-to guide such as this one, and the comprehensive index is particularly useful to its proper use as a quick reference guide. The chapter on resuscitation is undoubtedly the most high-yield among the chapters. The management of dysrhythmias, the algorithms detailing the plan of action in basic and advanced life support and in newborn life support, and the alphabetical listing of dosages of emergency drugs are especially useful to both experts and nonexperts in the field in an emergency situation when timeliness and details matter the most. In the section on dilutions and dosages of emergency drugs, it would be helpful to include the U.S. names of medications in parentheses next to the British name (for example, Suxamethonium (Succinylcholine). A topic that should be elaborated upon is pseudocholinesterase/butyrylcholinesterase deficiency, which is alluded to on page 32, but is not formally discussed. It should also be cross-referenced in the index. The biggest shortcoming of the book is its emphasis on the use of words to relay information, as opposed to tables, figures, illustrations, pictures, and algorithms. While the book has some of these features, there are far too few. The use of illustrations and pictures can be increased most notably in the chapter on regional anesthesia, as one illustration or picture may convey the information more precisely and effectively than several bulleted points. Furthermore, the management of malignant hyperthermia discusses on page 138 would be more amenable to an algorithm than to bulleted points.
Assessment: This concise, go-to guide for anesthesia providers caring for neonates, infants, and children facilitates the creation of perioperative care plans for these patients. It is also useful as a quick reference guide at the bedside. It can appeal to both experts and nonexperts in the field, although to different extents. This book is similar to Handbook of Pediatric Anesthesia, Houck et al. (McGraw-Hill, 2015), in that both serve as quick reference guides for the perioperative care of pediatric patients. They differ in that the Houck book presents all the information related to a specific disease or disorder and formats preoperative, intraoperative, and postoperative care plans for each one. It also includes a "Do's and Don'ts" section for each disease and disorder. Neither book is meant to cover the details and intricacies of the entire scope of the specialty, but both are comprehensive introductory books.
"...this book's main appeal is as a pocket size quick reference guide, providing an excellent summary of current practice, that can be carried everywhere by any anesthetist involved in the care of children. The book covers a vast curriculum in a shell and makes essential reading for trainees, general anesthetists managing children in nonspecialist hospitals, and anyone aspiring to become a pediatric anesthetist." — Mahmood Rafiq, MD, FRCA, EDAIC Martin Cole, MBBCh, BSc, FRCA, Department of Anaesthesia and Critical Care Royal Glamorgan Hospital NHS Wales, Anesthesia & Analgesia
"...this overview of pediatric anesthesia offers abundant information that can be accessed as needed because of the book's suitably succinct nature and excellent layout. It would be a good investment for any anesthesiologist with an interest in pediatric anesthesia, especially those in training or with upcoming examinations." — Simon Denning, Canadian Journal of Anesthesia"This concise, go-to guide for anesthesia providers caring for neonates, infants, and children facilitates the creation of perioperative care plans for these patients. It is also useful as a quick reference guide at the bedside." — Doodys book reviews
