This paperback textbook, edited by an infectious disease specialist, an internist, and a professor of surgery, joins the respected "Current Diagnosis and Treatment" series that has enjoyed such success with Lange Medical Publications. The editors follow the Lange format of a relatively inexpensive but well-printed paperback, with crisp illustrations; multiple tables, graphs, and diagrams; and a concise, semioutline text. The final product is a fascinating collection of fact-filled review chapters, didactic flow diagrams, and enough substantive tables and figures to alone justify the purchase of the book.
The editors and their 35 associate authors emphasize two unique aspects of emergency medicine: first, diagnoses are often unknown when patients are initially seen in the emergency room; and second, evaluation and treatment must frequently proceed simultaneously. In the emergency room, many problems yield a diagnosis only after treatment begins, and the response to therapy makes the diagnosis. This unconventional approach is made