In depleted patients who need elective surgery, the correction of a nutritional deficiency is essential to minimize the risk of complications or death. Surgeons need a handbook to which they can turn for practical and reliable guidance in this important task. Deitel and his 64 coauthors give us a comprehensive and up-to-date tool for this purpose.
There are two main sections. The first, on principles and techniques, includes details of enteral and parenteral catheterization, tables of normal values for assessment of nutritional status, model forms for medical records, and the outline of a computer program dealing with body composition, nutritional evaluation, and treatment. The contents of commercially available liquid diets and vitamin supplements are tabulated. Dudrick's essays on nutritional assessment and on home parenteral nutrition are, as would be expected from this pioneer, complete and authoritative. Pediatric patients are discussed in a separate chapter. A policy of presenting each chapter