Civilian Vascular Trauma

The remainder of the chapters are presented in alphabetical order with 36 pages devoted to "Dermatologic Emergencies" (only 19 pages were reserved for "Resuscitation"), and I find it hard to believe that male pattern baldness was even mentioned. Most of the chapters on standard medical and surgical chapters are adequate for the amount of information presented, but little omissions occur frequently. For example, the section on tick paralysis fails to tell the reader to search the head and neck carefully for a tick and that the paralysis improves rapidly with tick removal. The section on treatment of methanol or ethylene glycol ingestion discusses the use of IV ethanol without stating how to prepare the solution, only to keep the serum level between 100 to 150 mg/dL. Lastly, the section on snakebite management states "commercially available snake antivenin is reconstituted with horse serum"; it is made from horse serum and reconstituted with normal saline. Sections of the book are well done. The chapter on gastrointestinal emergencies is nicely presented for those unfamiliar with this topic, as is the discussion of gynecologic emergencies. A short chapter entitled "Genetic Emergencies" is a very helpful addition and presents possible emergency conditions that may occur in patients with a known genetic abnormality. I wish this chapter were more detailed, rather than four pages of tables. The chapter on ingestions is made very useful by presenting a list of nontoxic products and house plants, thus saving a busy physician a lot of time in such cases. The chapter on "Sedation and Analgesia" is also quite useful, especially with its two-page table for rapid review and comparison of different agents. In addition, the chapter "Wound Care and Minor Trauma" is enhanced with very useful illustrations. In summary, the level of discussion of topics is appropriate for medical students or interns, but the many little omissions are apt to cause problems for the reader. Accordingly, I would net strongly recommend its purchase by students or interns, even though I know they like books that fit in their pockets. The Harriet Lane handbook, although net an emergency manual, has a lot of information in a small space and is surprisingly useful for one to have in the pocket while involved in pediatrics. Having standard emergency pediatrics books readily available for reference in the emergency department would be a better resource for your students and interns than relying on this book.