Manual of preoperative and postoperative care

Manual of preoperative and postoperative care

Review of Recent Books MANUAL OF PREOPERATIVE POSTOPERATIVE CARE AND By the Committee on Postoperative and Preoperative Care-American College of Sur...

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Review of Recent Books MANUAL OF PREOPERATIVE POSTOPERATIVE CARE

AND

By the Committee on Postoperative and Preoperative Care-American College of Surgeons W. B. Saunders

Reviewed

Company, Philadelphia, 506 pages, $8.50

hz~ EDWARD

1967

S.STAFFORD,M.D.

AN ENORMOUS AMOUNT of useful information is contained in this book, representing a great deal of work on the part of the authors and the editorial subcommittee; all of them are outstanding leaders of American surgery. According to the introduction, “it is intended to provide for the busy clinical surgeon, and for the surgical house officer, quick and concise access to recent advances in surgical metabolism and nutrition; fluid and electrolyte balance; endrocrine, cardiac, respiratory and renal physiology; clotting disorders; infection; and shock.” As is to be expected, some unevenness in the quality of the presentations exists. It is surprising to find that the specific methods of recognizing and treating hemophilia are not

included and that in the section on burns, which probably does not belong in this book anyway, there is no mention of the silver nitrate method. The chapters on evaluation of the patient, fluid and electrolyte therapy, and the metabolic problems of surgical patients are outstanding as is also the chapter dealing with infections. On the other hand, the discussion of ventilation I find quite inadequate. It seems to me that this is the proper place for a good discussion of blood gas problems, but they are scarcely mentioned; there should be much more in such a section on the utilization of the various kinds of apparatus to assist respiration, and in the care of the patient with a tracheostomy. There is not, in fact, a very good discussion on the indications for tracheostomy. The latter half of the book is devoted to discussion of patient care in the surgery of body organs and systems, and again the discussion of complications is weak. One looks in vain, for example, for aid in the recognition of and treatment of a leaking duodenal stump following gastric resection. The book sorely needs a section on those postoperative manifestations that should lead one to suspect that all is not well with the patient. The book is neither short enough to be considered a brief and concise manual nor is it long enough to be a useful encyclopedia.