Strengths: Readable and straightforward; up-to-date discussion
Weaknesses: Organization occasionally confusing
Audience: Medical students, junior house staff
It is refreshing to see familiar material presented in a concise, no-nonsense format. The contents should be familiar to all physicians and medical students. The book could serve as a useful syllabus for core-content training sessions in emergency medicine for undergraduate medical students and junior house staff.
A major difference between the third edition and previous editions is that the resuscitation of injury victims has been removed and placed in a companion publication, ABC of Major Trauma (also available from the CMA). As a result, the ABC of Resuscitation focuses primarily on cardiac resuscitation.
The chapters of the book are, with two exceptions, written by members of the Resuscitation Council. The authors are drawn from anesthesia, accident and emergency medicine, cardiology and primary care.
The core of the material is an up-to-date and readable discussion of the principles of resuscitation. The algorithms for advanced life support are very similar to those in current use in North America. Throughout the book there is a good discussion of the use of different equipment in resuscitation. The discussion of drugs involved in resuscitation is inadequate. However, the pharmacologic aspects of these drugs are well described in other textbooks, and the reader is certainly provided with adequate references.
The organization of the book is somewhat puzzling. There is no clear logic to the sequence of the chapters. The early chapters deal with basic life support and advanced life support; the book then strays to a discussion of resuscitation in different settings, then back to a clinical discussion of drowning, AIDS, hepatitis and resuscitation, then to discussions of the need to train the public, the use of training mannequins, training and retention of skills, and the ethics of resuscitation. The final few chapters are clinical ones: they involve resuscitation pharmacology, postresuscitative care and cardiac pacing.
Another minor criticism is that the editing is not very consistent. Several aspects, particularly those related to the history of emergency medicine and resuscitation, are repeated in more than one chapter. The three chapters on training are also redundant. The editors have not been as meticulous as one would like about including appropriate legends and citations for figures and illustrations.
This common-sense manual provides a useful collection of practical information on resuscitation. I recommend it highly for undergraduate medical students and junior house staff.
Peter L. Lane, MD, FRCPC
Medical director
Trauma Services
Associate professor
University of Western Ontario
London, Ont.