Editor-in-Chief: Ilkka Kunnamo
Publisher: Duodecim Medical Publications (March 2005)
Reviewer: Meteb Al-Foheidi, Medical Resident, University of Toronto
When I was originally asked to review this book, I anticipated examining a pocket-sized guide, but I was surprised to receive a textbook-sized volume running1,311 pages.
When I started to review this book, I tried to cover some topics that I knew and others that I had little knowledge about. At the time I delved in I was doing my emergency medicine rotation, where I was exposed to a wide variety of surgical and medical emergencies in an urban academic hospital. I planned to check every case that I encountered in the Emergency Room with the information contained in the book. For instance, I had an allergic rhinitis case, and I went looking for this in the book. In this and other cases, the text proved to be a good resource: the material was informative and clear, and it provided me with the ARIA guidelines and classifications.
The guide is further enhanced by its thorough forward, preface, and list of abbreviations. It also features good-quality cover design and material.
However, readers should be aware of a few flaws. First, I noted several spelling mistakes (for example, the word “Pheo” was written as “feo”). Second, main chapters were not categorized properly for easy searching. Generally, each chapter dealt with a specialty (e.g., cardiology or pediatrics). But there were some chapters that should have been subchapters within specific specialties: diabetes should fall under endocrinology and birth control under obstetrics and gynecology. While they were likely allotted their own chapters because they are extensively studied conditions or categories, I found it poor on the level of organization.
Furthermore, sections under chapters were improperly categorized. This may cause confusion or even make it difficult to find the information easily without going through all of the contents’ subsections. For instance, page 89 featured material about Hospital Investigations. The first point referred readers to a page still further ahead, page 100, which was about “Secondary Hypertension.” Sending readers back and forth to read about one subject should be avoided.
Other examples of poor organization included chapter content. Some chapters were diseases and others were symptoms. For example, Pulmonary Diseases started with Hemoptysis. Etiologies such as infections, tumours, cardiovascular disease, trauma, etc., were discussed. Then under Differential Diagnosis, the authors addressed the importance of the patient’s history, clinical examinations, and chest x-ray, which are essential for differential diagnosis. As another example of disorganization, the writers opted to explore specific diseases of the respiratory system within a chapter dealing with a symptom.
Some chapters were not evidence-based such as Occupational Health and Pollution—a concern in a text devoted to evidence-based guidelines.
Regarding references: the textbook mentioned only grading references, but no tables or summary and references were listed at the end of each section. In my opinion, this kind of book should contain tables, easy-to-follow flow charts, and summaries that are specific to that section.
The book should have been devoted to guidelines only, based on the title, but the authors/editors went beyond that and added information that one would only find in general medical textbooks and reference guides, such as adding detailed definitions, epidemiology, clinical presentations, and investigations that lacked connection to either guidelines or to evidence-based medicine. Thus the book deviates from its title and is a hybrid of evidence-based guidelines and a standard textbook.
My overall assessment of this book: I believe it will be helpful for the generalists for whom this book was intended. As for me, I will keep this copy on my shelf and I will use it for topics outside my specialty, internal medicine. It will be more useful as a general reference for me in other areas such as surgery, pediatrics, and so forth.
