- Email: [email protected]
Techniques in Therapeutic Endoscopy
Book Reviews Techniques in Therapeutic Endoscopy, by Jerome D. Waye, Joseph E. Geenen, David Fleischer, and Rama P. Venu, 160 pp, with illus, $75, Philadelphia, W. B. Saunders Com pany, 1987 Many procedures have been added to the arma mentarium of the therapeutic gastrointestinal endoscopist during the past half decade. This work is a current, concise, well-written, and practical guide to several of the most commonly practiced procedures in therapeutic endoscopy. The book is written by four highly experienced endoscopists known for their teaching abilities and previous publications in the field. Each of the seven chap ters covers a specific procedure or group of re lated procedures, including coagulative therapy for bleeding from ulcers and vascular mal formations, esophageal variceal sclerotherapy, palliation of esophageal and colorectal tumor obstruction, percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy, management of biliary obstruction, and polypectomy. The chapters are uniformly and efficiently or ganized. A brief and pertinent introduction is followed by sections on indications and contrain dications, patient assessment and preparation, equipment, technique, complications, and followup. The text is frequently embellished with useful personal tips. Appropriate for these visually or iented procedures, the pages are richly illustrated with nearly 250 high-quality figures. Endophotographs are juxtaposed to schematics that em phasize a treatment principle or anatomic con sideration. A slide atlas of these figures is available from the publisher. By design, this is not a comprehensive treatise on the subject of therapeutic endoscopy. Few data are presented, and chapters are sparsely referenced. The relative merits of competing technologies are not discussed, and issues of costeffectiveness are avoided. Finally, certain thera peutic procedures are not covered—for example, endoscopic management of benign strictures, balloon fracture for achalasia, removal of for eign bodies, and decompression of megacolon or volvulus. Practitioners and teachers of therapeutic endos copy and fellows in gastroenterology in the later Mayo Clin Proc 62:743,1987
stages of their training would find this book both interesting and instructive. It would be an ap propriate and much-read addition to the gas troenterology library at any institution where therapeutic endoscopy is taught. As the authors state in their preface, this work is intended to complement and not replace the time-honored approach to acquiring endoscopic skills by the preceptor method. David A. Ahlquist, M.D. Division of Gastroenterology and Internal Medicine
Respiratory Intensive Care, edited by Ken neth F. MacDonnell, Patrick J. Fahey, and Maurice S. Segal, 478 pp, with illus, $58, Bos ton, Little, Brown and Company, 1987 The stated goal for this book is "to provide clinicians at all levels of training with a compre hensive, though not encyclopedic, structured framework for...acute respiratory problems in the intensive care unit." With the first rounds of certification in criticalcare medicine under several of the American medical specialty boards, many textbooks of crit ical care have been introduced in the past few years, and no doubt more will appear. This book is designed to provide a substantial foundation in the pathophysiologic aspects of respiratory care in the intensive care unit. Although it is intended for all levels of expertise, it may be difficult reading for a novice and superficial in some areas for the experienced clinician. The distinguishing feature of the book is that it specifically focuses on clinical management of respiratory patients—it does not attempt to cover the entire field of critical care. It is structured so that the interested reader can read it in its en tirety and learn the approach that these authors use in caring for their own respiratory patients. The general format is a well-accepted standard. Somewhat less than the first half of the book is devoted to a review of the physiologic and patho physiologic features of respiratory care, includ ing gas exchange, fluid and electrolytes, acid743
stages of their training would find this book both interesting and instructive. It would be an ap propriate and much-read addition to the gas troenterology library at any institution where therapeutic endoscopy is taught. As the authors state in their preface, this work is intended to complement and not replace the time-honored approach to acquiring endoscopic skills by the preceptor method. David A. Ahlquist, M.D. Division of Gastroenterology and Internal Medicine
Respiratory Intensive Care, edited by Ken neth F. MacDonnell, Patrick J. Fahey, and Maurice S. Segal, 478 pp, with illus, $58, Bos ton, Little, Brown and Company, 1987 The stated goal for this book is "to provide clinicians at all levels of training with a compre hensive, though not encyclopedic, structured framework for...acute respiratory problems in the intensive care unit." With the first rounds of certification in criticalcare medicine under several of the American medical specialty boards, many textbooks of crit ical care have been introduced in the past few years, and no doubt more will appear. This book is designed to provide a substantial foundation in the pathophysiologic aspects of respiratory care in the intensive care unit. Although it is intended for all levels of expertise, it may be difficult reading for a novice and superficial in some areas for the experienced clinician. The distinguishing feature of the book is that it specifically focuses on clinical management of respiratory patients—it does not attempt to cover the entire field of critical care. It is structured so that the interested reader can read it in its en tirety and learn the approach that these authors use in caring for their own respiratory patients. The general format is a well-accepted standard. Somewhat less than the first half of the book is devoted to a review of the physiologic and patho physiologic features of respiratory care, includ ing gas exchange, fluid and electrolytes, acid743