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Handbook of Trauma Care: The Liverpool Hospital Trauma Manual 6th Edition
Resuscitation 58 (2003) 233 www.elsevier.com/locate/resuscitation
Book review Handbook of Trauma Care: The Liverpool Hospital Trauma Manual 6th Edition Editors: Scott D’Amours, Michael Sugrue, Robert Russell, Nadia Nocera. Publisher: Liverpool Hospital Sydney Clinicians like small books. This is particularly true when they are easy to read, give sensible, concise and coherent advice and fit into a white-coat pocket. This small manual fulfils all of these criteria admirably and is the first edition of the manual to be published in pocketbook format. Clinicians working in the Emergency Department, Operating Theatres and Intensive Care Unit at the Liverpool Hospital, New South Wales, have been given a genuinely useful asset. The clinical advice follows fairly standard formats, with appropriate use of algorithms and there is little with which to take exception in relation to the management of blunt or penetrating trauma. The sections on pre-hospital information and handover, intra- and interhospital transport, decision making and documentation are especially good models which could usefully be followed by every hospital.
There are, however, one or two points that the editors might wish to consider in succeeding editions: First, while colour pictures add to initial visual appeal, in a small pocket book the necessarily small layout can produce some problems. X-rays, in particular, do not reproduce well in small format and, if a photograph is to be used, it should be both clear, informative and contribute to the text and understanding. Perhaps a proportion of the photographs could be replaced by line diagrams to provide even greater clarity and understanding. Second, and inevitably for a manual produced and focussed on a single institution, there are elements of parochiality which make its applicability to other hospitals and environments less easy. Nevertheless, this is a gem of a book and any unit even thinking of producing its own handbook of trauma or emergency care should look at this excellent example before going further.
0300-9572/03/$ - see front matter # 2003 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/S0300-9572(03)00124-2
Colin Robertson Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, Edinburgh, UK
Book review Handbook of Trauma Care: The Liverpool Hospital Trauma Manual 6th Edition Editors: Scott D’Amours, Michael Sugrue, Robert Russell, Nadia Nocera. Publisher: Liverpool Hospital Sydney Clinicians like small books. This is particularly true when they are easy to read, give sensible, concise and coherent advice and fit into a white-coat pocket. This small manual fulfils all of these criteria admirably and is the first edition of the manual to be published in pocketbook format. Clinicians working in the Emergency Department, Operating Theatres and Intensive Care Unit at the Liverpool Hospital, New South Wales, have been given a genuinely useful asset. The clinical advice follows fairly standard formats, with appropriate use of algorithms and there is little with which to take exception in relation to the management of blunt or penetrating trauma. The sections on pre-hospital information and handover, intra- and interhospital transport, decision making and documentation are especially good models which could usefully be followed by every hospital.
There are, however, one or two points that the editors might wish to consider in succeeding editions: First, while colour pictures add to initial visual appeal, in a small pocket book the necessarily small layout can produce some problems. X-rays, in particular, do not reproduce well in small format and, if a photograph is to be used, it should be both clear, informative and contribute to the text and understanding. Perhaps a proportion of the photographs could be replaced by line diagrams to provide even greater clarity and understanding. Second, and inevitably for a manual produced and focussed on a single institution, there are elements of parochiality which make its applicability to other hospitals and environments less easy. Nevertheless, this is a gem of a book and any unit even thinking of producing its own handbook of trauma or emergency care should look at this excellent example before going further.
0300-9572/03/$ - see front matter # 2003 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/S0300-9572(03)00124-2
Colin Robertson Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, Edinburgh, UK