Essential Clinical Pharmacology

THIS is the most recent of a series of general practitioner handbooks covering medical specialities and designed to be practical and short in compass. Dr. Golding is an experienced author (and rheumatologist) and has put a great deal of his widely based knowledge into this manual. Recognised difficulties in the classification, diagnosis and therapy of the common rheumatic states are presented largely in note form with marginal headings and there is appended a very useful glossary to cover briefly the less common rheumatic disorders. The section on the psychogenic aspects of the rheumatic disease is particularly commended. Of necessity, the book tends to be dogmatic and in it, the author makes a gallant attempt to give guidance as to when the patient should be referred to the rheumatologist. The advice on joint aspiration and injection is sketchy and unlikely to lead to success. In most circumstances, such procedures are best undertaken in hospital. This is a very practical, readable book which will be a reliable guide not only to the general practitioner but junior medical staff and students will benefit from reading it. MJWB AT a recent meeting of the Ulster Medical Society in which I took part entitled "Paediatric Emergencies" it was interesting to see how doctors from different branches of the medical services for children interpreted the word-'emergency'. From a family doctor's night call for otitis media to the life-threatening stridor of acute epiglottitis in an intensive care unit. Now here is a book which deals specifically with such emergencies which can be recommended for junior paediatric doctors, accident and emergency department staff, general practitioners and senior medical students. The emphasis is upon diagnosis and management of paediatric emergencies, and the approach is essentially practical. Several chapters had been published previously as individual articles in Hospital Update, but these have been extensively revised and a number of new chapters added. Topics dealt with include-neonatal resuscitation, cardiorespiratory arrest, stridor, diarrhoea and vomiting, acute abdominal pain, diabetic ketoacidosis and hypoglycaemia, the febrile child, convulsions, coma and shock. Accidents and poisonings, sudden infant death syndrome and child abuse are also included. The book is detailed in giving instructions regarding emergency room and bedside management and includes an excellent chapter on practical procedures. It is well illustrated with tables, clinical photographs, management flow diagrams, x-rays and schematic drawings. There are several appendices, one of which sets out recommended doses of useful drugs …