Andrew Batchelder, University of Leicester

Churchill’s Pocketbook of Anaesthesia is an excellent quick-reference text. It begins with a revision of basic physiology, providing the foundation for the principles of anaesthetics. It subsequently describes the pharmacological agents commonly used by the anaesthetist, equipment and the conduct of general anaesthesia, pre- and post-operative assessment, and the principles of airway management and fluid balance. Conveniently, for readers with a particular interest in this field the book even has a chapter on careers in anaesthesia - the amount of information packed into this little book is incredible!
The book also has a very useful section of ‘action plans’ which are clearly laid out under the headings of definition, clinical features, diagnosis and management/action.
This book is principally intended for junior doctors in the field of anaesthetics and, accordingly, contains a lot of detail which may overwhelm students.

Posted 1st Jul 2008

Greg Pickering, University of Bristol

This is a really useful, handy little book to carry about during anaesthetics. It’s small enough to slip into your scrub’s pocket and is ideal for pulling out before attempting a procedure. It has a good, basic overview of the relevant physiology and pharmacology, as well as explaining what most of the equipment being used is and how it works.
It’s also full of useful pictures and simple diagrams to help clarify the explanations of all the procedures you might have to attempt, as well as the reasoning behind their use and any relevant contraindications, etc.
In all this is an excellent pocket sized book covering everything that is pre-, peri- and post-operatively relevant to anaesthetics, and is simply ideal for pulling out to browse between cases or at times even during the operations themselves!!

Posted 1st Jul 2008

Iffat Ali, Barts and the London School of Medicine and Dentistry

Pocketbook of Anaesthesia is as the title suggests the perfect size to carry on your person on the wards/in theatre. Its purpose is to serve as an introduction to the speciality, and it certainly does that, containing a surprising amount of information for its size.
For a beginner, like me, this book was excellent as it started with the absolute basics and worked its way up. It is idiot-proof to the extent that it had photos of different types of airways!
I felt it was well laid out and found it practical to find and understand information at short notice. But be warned this is not a cheese and onion style bullet pointed text, most of it is in prose along with tables and photos.
My only criticism would be that the pictures looked a bit outdated and it would have benefited from being in full colour rather than just two

Posted 1st Jul 2008

Paul Dhillon, Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland

Two great things about this book are the size and the laminated cover. It will fit easily into your overflowing lab coat pockets and be worth the extra space it takes up. The book is organized as much for a comprehensive review of the specialty than for really quick look up of facts. Reading the book cover to cover probably isn’t the best way to approach it though. Waiting until you find something you don’t understand in relation to a patient’s management and then looking up the information in the book is probably the best way to go. The organisation of the book is more suited to this than quick look ups of dosages and methods. Taking a quick read of the post-operative and pre-operative sections would be valuable for anyone doing surgery rotations as it would show you the important implications of what the person behind the curtain is doing, a sure way to impress the consultants.

Posted 1st Jul 2008