B O O K R E V I E W S

R E C E N T A D V A N C E S IN A N A E S T H E S I A AND A N A L G E S I A . C.L. HEWER, Editor. l l t h edition. E d i n b u r g h and London, Churchi l l -Livingstone, 1972. Price $16.25.

C.L. HEWER'S "RECENT M)VANCES" has become an essential part of the anaesthetist's reading, and it is hard to believe that the first edition was published by the same author 41 years ago. The eleventh edition stands up well when compared to its predecessors, although the idea of different writers for each subiect (first introduced in the 9th edi- tion in 1963) inevitably leads to inequalities of standards of individual chapters. There is only one chapter which is the same as in the 10th edition (Cardiac Surgery) and while this is well written, it naturally repeats a lot of what was said in the previous edition.

Another chapter, on Anaesthesia in Difficult Environments, may be thought to be out of place in a book of Recent Advances because today's trained anaesthetist should be able to adapt himself to any. situation. The author also takes nearly one third of the whole book to say what could be said in a quarter of the length of this chapter. Parts of the chapter on Obstetric Analgesia read rather strangely on this side of the Atlantic, particularly the indications for epidural analgesia. The maximum dose of 10 ml of 2 per cent lignocaine without adrenaline, tabled in the chapter on Complications, would also be questioned by many anaesthetists here.

It is very easy to critieise from an armchair, but one must also congratulate most of the authors for keeping to their subiect so succinctly. The chapters dealing with keta- mine, new muscle relaxants, new respiratory stimulants, and interaction of drugs, are well worth reading, even by those who have become famihar with them. Complications are adequately dealt with, but the chapter on the intensive care unit is more concerned with clinical problems than with the place of the anaesthetist.

Like all current publications, there are a number of spelling and grammatical mis- takes, such as "in patients undergoing cardiac ligation" (page 10) (carotid ligation), "metabolism in the liver is modified by a few drops which reduce the rate of metabol- ism" (page 67) (by a few drugs). It is a pity that the title of the paper could not have been added to the list of references at the end of each chapter and some of the refer- ences have the year of publication missing. Incidentally, more than 75% of the references are dated 1966 or later, which upholds very well the title of the book.

The last two chapters are new to the series, in fact very new to the specialty, as subiects for debate. The last one in particular, although it deals with the position in British hospitals, is a "must read" not only for anaesthetists but also administrators, political doctors and politicians in all countries short of trained anaesthetists.

S.G.

I N T R O D U C T I O N T O L I F E SUPPORT. M.B. RAVIN AND J.H. MODELL, Editors. Boston. Lit t le Brown and Co. 1973. Price $7.75.

THIS IS A VOLUME on resuscitation from the Department of Anaesthesiology of the University of Florida College of Medicine, which could be a useful source of informa- tion on the subject for all students. It is in the form of a paperback book of 183 pages. A more compact form of publication would have made it pocketbook size. People of all types requiring resuscitation are mentioned including the newborn, the poisoned and drowned, and the pre-operative patient.

The chapter on drug interactions in anaesthesia seems sliglatly out of place as the book would not appear to be about anaesthesia, although by anaesthesiologists, and

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the concentrated information does not add to the subiect under review in a book of this size.

S.A.F.

A N A L G E S I A A N D A N A E S T H E S I A I N O B S T E T R I C S by ODILE M. PLANTEVIN, 1973. Toronto , But terwor th and Co. ( C a n a d a ) Ltd. Price $5.80.

THIS IS A USEFUL LITTLE PAPER-BACK which is directed originally to the British Midwife. It treats in an admirably concise wav with the anatomical and physiological basis of pain in labour, methods for relief of pain, and the influence of these on mother and foetus.

The equipment described for the production of inhalation analgesia is the portable equipment currently available to the British midwife, and will be quite foreign to most Canadian anaesthetists. Otherwise this manual provides a very useful introduction to the subject, and is recommended to the student and practising physician alike as an excellent brief review of the topic. RAG

M O D E R N I N H A L A T I O N A N E S T H E T I C S - MAYNARD B. CHENOWETH, Editor. Berlin, He ide lberg , New York - Springer-Verlag, 1972.

THIS VOLUME is No. XXX of Springer's Handbooks of Experimental Pharmacology. It consists of a series of excellent and exhaustive reviews of the modern inhalation anaesthe- tic drugs, contributed by twenty-one outstanding pharmacologists and anaesthesiologists, in the United States, Great Britain and France. It is remarkably current, and is highly recommended as an authoritative work of reference both for anaesthetists and pharma- cologists. RAG

R E G I O N A L A N A E S T H E S I A - JOHN J. BONICA, Editor . Philadelphia, F.A. Davis Co. Toronto , McGraw-Hi l l Ryerson Ltd. - 1972. Price $9.50.

THIs VOLUME is one of the clinical anaesthesia series published by the F.A. Davis Co. Of the eleven contributors, eleven are in the Department of Anaesthesia in the University of Washington.

This volume is a useful up-dating and review of current knowledge of pharmaco- dynamics and pharmacology of local anaesthetic drugs, and of the effects of these drugs when applied clinically in the production of subarachnoid and epidural spinal block. To these are added chapters on the use of regional anaesthesia for obstetrics, a rather spotty chapter on nerve block therapy in pain, a brief discussion of techniques of regional anaes- thesia for surgery of the extremities, and a discussion of the complications of regional anaesthesia. Several of the bibliographies are extensive and these are a useful feature of the volume.

While the authors contributing to this volume are outstanding personalities in their field, this volume is neither a textbook nor a monograph on any particular topic. Un- doubtedly some of the reviews are useful as such, but there is nothing new here and nothing which may not be found in a variety of other sources. RAG