Jeffrey D. Swenson, MD, is Professor of Anesthesiol-ogy and Director of Anesthesia, University of UtahOrthopaedic Center, Salt Lake City, Utah, USA.

306 Vol. 46 No. 2 August 2013Book Reviews

This new book is easy to read, concise, andpractical. It is geared toward an interdisciplin-ary audience, including physicians, nurses,social workers, nutritionists, and trainees,among others. It is not written at the level ofspecialist or subspecialist, but rather, is forany clinician interested in palliative care. Thebook can be seen as ‘‘a good tool kit’’ and anintroduction to the basics of palliative care.

There are 28 chapters covering a range ofmedical and nonmedical topics. The questionand answer section at the end of each chapteradds interest and keeps the reader engaged. Ingeneral, the references are up-to-date.

Although Essentials of Palliative Caremay havetoo many chapters on technical issues, thebook also includes topics not usually coveredby other palliative care textbooks. In mostcases, these make for interesting reading.The chapters on Vascular Access: Ostomiesand Drains Care in Palliative Medicine (Chap-ter 13); Interventional Radiology in PalliativeCare (Chapter 15); Interventional Techniquesin Palliative Care (Chapter 17); EndoscopicTherapies for Palliation of Gastrointestinal Ma-lignancies (Chapter 19); The Role of PalliativeCare in Cardiothoracic Surgery (Chapter 20);Palliative Care in Cardiac Electrophysiology(Chapter 22); and Physician Coding, Billing,and Reimbursement for Palliative Care (Chap-ter 28) are notable in this regard.

The wide range of topics has a negative side,however. The book as a whole lacks a coherentstructure and flow and contains multiple repe-titions. For example, the Preface and Chapter1 are identical. There is a great deal of overlapbetween Chapter 7 (Symptom Management)and Chapter 14 (Drug Formulary), perhapsbecause both chapters share the same author.Interventional Radiology in Palliative Care(Chapter 15) and Interventional Techniquesin Palliative Care (Chapter 17) both discussceliac plexus blocks. Similarly, the ‘‘rule ofdouble effect’’ and the ‘‘principle of doubleeffect’’ are reviewed more than once.

There are some missing topics as well. Thereis no chapter about spiritual or religious issuesin palliative care and no chapter on caregiverissues.

In sum, Essentials of Palliative Care can be anintroduction to palliative care for the non-specialist health care professional. Despitesome weaknesses, the format is readily

accessible and the information in generalmay be useful in everyday practice.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jpainsymman.2013.03.004

Expanding the Scope ofAcute Pain ManagementJeffrey D. Swenson, MD

Regional Anesthesia in Trauma: A Case-BasedApproachBy Jeff GadsdenPublished by Cambridge University Press, NewYork, NY, USA2012, 146 pages, $55 (Softcover)

In the preface to Regional Anesthesia inTrauma, the author states that his objective isto provide instruction on post-trauma analge-sia to a broad range of acute care providers.With this goal in mind, the text is a good intro-duction to current techniques and issues re-lated to acute pain management.The book comprises 21 chapters that are each

10e12-pages long and are arranged in a ‘‘casepresentation’’ format. Each topic is discussedin enough detail to provide a basic understand-ing of the underlying principles without beingso extensive as to overwhelm the reader. Withfew exceptions, each chapter deals with relevanttopics in pain control such as nerve block com-plications, multimodal analgesia, and compart-ment syndrome. Many of these topics (such aslocal anesthetic toxicity) are extensively dis-cussed in the anesthesiology literature but arenot the focus of other specialties.As the title suggests, regional anesthesia is

a fundamental component of pain control fortrauma patients. Along with this emphasis on

Vol. 46 No. 2 August 2013 307Book Reviews

regional anesthesia, the author appropriatelyhighlights the important role of ultrasound asa tool for guiding needle placement. Althoughthe length and format of this book do not per-mit an extensive discussion of ultrasound anat-omy, as readers progress through the chaptersthey are introduced to various principles ofultrasound-guided regional anesthesia such asthe needle to transducer relationship and tissueappearances.

With a handbook format, the author has tobalance the task of presenting a comprehensiveexplanation of each concept with the pragmaticneed to be concise. As such, some readers maybe left wanting more detail on many of the sub-jects addressed in the book. Similarly, the lack ofreference citations within the text of each chap-ter is a drawback for those readers looking forthe source of a given fact or statement. Futureeditions would benefit from a more extensiveuse of citations and references.

The book is well illustrated with diagrams,photographs, and ultrasound images depictingcommonly performed nerve blocks. Theseconstitute a useful resource that the readercan consult when actually performing the

procedures in a clinical setting. A convenient,printed copyof pertinent anatomy is useful, evenwith the availability of extensive Internet-basedresources.

Ultrasound-guided regional anesthesia tech-niques and technology, along with other formsof acute and chronic pain control, are rapidlychanging. It is important for the reader to recog-nize that for many of the nerve blocks describedin this manual, there is little consensus on howthey should be performed. The readershipneeds to be aware that although the techniquespresented are endorsed by the author, and al-though theymay beoptimal within his ownprac-tice, they do not represent a comprehensivedescription of effective methods.

In summary, Regional Anesthesia for Traumameets its overall objective as a practical intro-duction to regional anesthesia for acute careproviders. The ‘‘case presentation’’ format al-lows for the discussion of not only the proce-dural aspects of pain control but also manyother measures to improve the safety and effi-cacy of analgesia.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jpainsymman.2013.04.001