BASIC ARTERIAL BLOOD GAS INTERPRETATION

BASIC ARTERIAL BLOOD GAS INTERPRETATION

III. --- ---I the bOOkshel1 CODE BLUE: CARDIAC ARREST AND RESUSCITATION. Edited by MICKEY S. EISENBERG. RICHARD O. CUMMINS and MARY 'f. Ho. Philade...

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CODE BLUE: CARDIAC ARREST AND RESUSCITATION. Edited by MICKEY S. EISENBERG. RICHARD O. CUMMINS and MARY 'f. Ho. Philadelphia: W B Saunders Company, 1987,244 pp, $18.95 This volume, as part of the Saunders Blue Book series, aims to provide practical information about cardiac arrest and resuscitation for medical students and physicians at all levels. The authors have done an excellent job of providing both background information and practical advice for the management of adult. pediatric and traumatic cardiac arrest. In doing so. they have provided a useful supplement to the American Heart Associations Textbook of Advanced Cardiac Life Support. Where the recommendations differ from the ACLS guidelines is clearly stated, and reasons for the differences are explained. The book has numerous tables and very clear line drawings. There is a table of frequently-used cardiac arrest drugs with dosage guidelines inside the front covers of the book for quick reference. The chapters on outcome after cardiac arrest. code organization, and airway management are full of useful information and practical hints. Overall. this text is interesting. readable and fulfills its objectives of providing a short. practical guide for cardiac arrest management.

Eloise M. Hannan M.D .• FCCP Gainesville. Florida

DECISION MAKING IN VASCULAR SURGERY. Edited by R. G. SCRIBNER, W H. BROWS and R. L. TAWES. Toronto: B C Decker Inc. 1987. $40.00

Decision Making in Surgery. written and conceived by Dr. Ben Eiseman, has now expanded to multiple specialties including vascular surgery. This book. edited by Scribner. Brown and Tawes with a host of contributors, is one of many books in the Decision Making series; Dr. Eiseman serves as consulting editor. Decision Making in Vascular Surgery is divided into four major sections: basic considerations, arterial disease. venous disease and special considerations. Because of the scope of arterial problems, the book is largely composed of topics under the section on arterial disease, which is subdivided into anatomic sites of the disease process and complications of arterial surgery. Throughout the entire book, algorithms of diagnostic and therapeutic workups were freely used to illustrate decision-making in each clinical setting. The format of each chapter, especially the style. is quite uniform. a feature often not evident in books with multiple authors. The editors are to be congratulated for maintaining uniformity throughout the entire book. Each chapter gives a clear and succinct description of the problem with useful selected references. Can decision making in surgery, in particular vascular surgery, be done by a cookbook approach? Probably not. Decision making, especially in the operating room, is derived from experience. knowledge and, to a large extent, instinct. For instance. when one is confronted with an unexpected colon carcinoma at surgery in a patient operated on for aortic aneurysm. decisionmaking about the appropriate approach requires experience and understanding of the potential hazards and benefits of treating one disease over the other. This decision-making process probably will not be solved by algorithms outlined in this book. Nearly all algorithms in the book deal with steps in the work-up for a particular clinical problem, and the true sense of decisionmaking is not apparent. Beginners in vascular surgery will find helpful diagnostic and therapeutic guides in this book. As stated by the editors, the book is designed to help the physician be effective. To this end, this book has achieved its goal and the algorithmic style is ideal for this approach. ]ames S. T: foo. M.D .• Ph.D. Chicago

BASIC ARTERIAL BLOOD GAS INTERPRETATION. By GARY L. ZAGELBAUM, MELVIN A. WELCHER and PETERDOYLE. Boston: Little Brown and Company, 1988. 319 pp, $19.50 This book was written to provide sufficient background information and practice exercises for learning the interpretation of arterial blood gas tests. Relevant anatomy, physiology and chemistry are presented to assist the reader in developing expertise in this clinical skill. The test uses a low-level, programmed-manual method to accomplish this. The six chapters build on each other and end with perhaps the most valuable portion of the book, a series of practical problems to test the readers comprehension. With a

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programmed text, one expects a slow methodic presentation of concepts, terms and illustrations, but this book takes too much space to lead the reader to the goal of interpreting blood gas reports. The illustrations are neverending and over-simplistic. It seems that the authors felt driven to provide at least one drawing or table per page. When presented with such a text. the reader will probably attempt to jump ahead when the going gets slow a temptation that is strongly prohibited in the preface but encouraged by the book itsel£ The practice exercises are excellent but too few The book is intended for respiratory care practitioners, critical care nurses and medical students, but most of these could have used a book of half the size. It could be used as an ancillary teaching method for those who just can't grasp this skill during classroom and clinical time. It is therefore recommended only as a supplementary workbook for these groups of health professionals.

Robert G. McGee. M.S .• RRT Henderson. Kentucky

ENDOTHELIAL SEEDING IN VASCULAR SURGERY. Edited by MALCOLM HERRING and JOHN L. GLOVER. New York: Grune and Stratton Inc, 1987, 177 pp, $47.50 Endothelial seeding-what a fantastic idea! Who would think that scraping the endothelium of a vein with steel wool could set off an explosion in investigations of endothelial cell biology? And what vascular surgeon would suspect that the investigations would produce such a fascinating volume of information about the physiology of endothelial cells and their effects on the body as a whole? No~ some ten years after the inception of this work at Indiana University, comes this volume, the result of a symposium held some time ago in Indianapolis. Endothelial seeding is designed to reduce the hyperplastic changes which have been noted to develop near anastomoses. Furthermore, endothelial seeding is intended to enhance patency of small caliber prostheses. Now ten years after beginning the research. we find that endothelial seeding is falling short of its promise. Nevertheless, seeding of endothelial cells on a vascular prosthesis in the experimental animal model does result in the formation of a confluent, luminal monolayer. When this occurs, enhanced graft patency is seen, and it is hoped that these lessons learned in the animal lab will apply to man. Therefore. the information contained in this slim volume will be interesting to surgeons who wish to remain informed about endothelial seeding, who may be interested in beginning clinical work in this area, and those who are interested in research in tissue culture and endothelial physiology. This latter group of surgeon-scientists may find 1987 information to be somewhat archaic. However, there are many departure points within this text that will lead to future investigations. Among them are the observations of Glagov, which define differences in species with regard to growth and metabolism of endothelium. Also, as Levy points out, there is a precarious balance between clotting and anticlotting at the graft surface. Current research on use of agents to attach endothelial cells to prostheses including albumin and fibronectin finds expression in this volume as well. Such research in endothelial seeding has already improved our knowledge of basic physiologic processes in the endothelium. Further work may define the eventual role of this activity in clinical vascular surgery.

John] Bergan, M.D .• FCCP Chicago

RESPIRATORY ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY. By DAVID E. MARTIN and JOHNW YOUTSEY. St. Louis: CV Mosby Company, 1988,277 pp, $17.95 This text evolved from a series of lectures in respiratory anatomy and physiology presented for nurses, respiratory therapists and medical students and is part of a continuing series of books from faculty lectures. This development is obvious since the topics begin as outlines and are then expanded into complete presentations; the result is an easily read and amply illustrated textbook. The book is well organized into mutually complimentary chapters that build on one another. The interaction between the pulmonary system and other body systems seems to be the re-occurring theme throughout the book and serves to emphasize the importance of this system to the reader. The illustrations are ample and completely integrated with the text of the book. For example, drawings explaining rib movement are the most understandable that this reviewer has seen used in describing this phenomenon. The authors have balanced the emphasis between the anatomy and physiology of the pulmonary system and show how complimentary the two disciplines are in meeting the bodys needs. Each chapter ends with a list of relevant

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