Book and Product Reviews

Anna Smajdor, Jonathan Herring and Robert Wheeler

Published by Oxford University Press

ISBN 978-0-19-965942-5

First edition published January 2022

Price £32.99

https://global.oup.com/academic/product/oxford-handbook-of-medical-ethics-and-law-9780199659425

Many of us are familiar with the excellent Oxford Handbook series and I personally am a big fan of this series. For those that don’t know, they are concise handbooks, though some are chunkier than others but highly clinically focussed and they are great for looking up and revising a topic quickly. Equally they are very useful for helping to manage a patient who you are directly dealing with. This book is similar to its other siblings in the Oxford Handbook series, maybe a little thinner than average (to me this is a plus as straight to the point) but the same dimensions and has the popular and hard-wearing vinyl covers. What sets it apart is for me, is this is one of the first ones in this series, that covers nonclinical (though relevant to clinical practice) topics.

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Edited by Alan Maisel and W Frank Peacock

Published by JP Medical Publishers http://jpmedpub.com/

Published December 2021 First Edition

ISBN 978-93-86322-24-1

Price £72

http://jpmedpub.com/bookdetails.aspx?SearchTxt=emergency%20cardiology&OBookID=3141

If you think about it, Cardiology can be thought of as a speciality that deals with chronic conditions but also includes a significant number of acute and urgent disorders. As you can guess from the title, this book devotes itself to the acute and emergency aspects of cardiology. It is a first edition and so to create a modern textbook like this is a significant and major undertaking. Well, the editors and contributing authors (mainly but not exclusively from North America) have done an excellent job.

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A textbook of cardiovascular medicine

One volume edition

Edited by Peter Libby, Robert Bonow, Douglas Mann, Gordon Tomaselli, Deepak Bhatt and Scott Solomon

ISBN 978-0-323-82467-5

Published November 2021 by Elsevier

https://www.uk.elsevierhealth.com/braunwalds-heart-disease-single-volume-9780323824675.html

£218.99

This is a truly monumental and hugely impressive book and it is living proof that in this modern internet ear, there is still room for a blockbuster book like this. The first edition appeared in 1980 and the founding author Eugene Braunwald (aged 92 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugene_Braunwald) still has made a contribution to this book. The preface of this current edition describes the book’s mission to provide “comprehensive” knowledge in its field. In my humble opinion, the book lives up to its expectations.

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74^th edition (1^st Edition for this year)

Edited By Rick Kellerman and David Rakel

ISBN 978-0-323-83378-3

Published by Elsevier

Price £77.99

https://www.uk.elsevierhealth.com/conns-current-therapy-2022-9780323833783.html

Yes, you read this correctly, it is in it’s 74^th edition and it is published every year and is clearly updated. For example, there is a significant chapter on Covid-19 (page 561) which gives a great general review on the topic and brings together all the information, we have been bombarded with. Because of it’s annual update and publication, it clearly stays on top of the game, in terms of keeping uptodate with events. Reading the preface brings home to the reader, what an undertaking this must be. There are 21 pages of contributors, packed into 1538 pages of high-quality text, sandwiched between a hard back cover.

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By Michael Camilleri

ISBN 978-0-19-751210-4

Published by the Mayo Clinic Scientific Press/Oxford University Press (published 2021)

Price £88.00

https://global.oup.com/academic/product/mayo-clinic-illustrated-textbook-of-neurogastroenterology-9780197512104?q=978-0-19-751210-4&cc=gb&lang=en

Until I had across this book, I had not realised there such a subspecialty of Neurogastroenterology but I am sure that most gastroenterologists had come across this topic in their work. This is not a book for the generalist but for the super specialised physician although the book is interesting, and I certainly (and surprisingly) got a lot out of it by reviewing it.

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5^th edition: Published by CRC Press December 2021

Edited David Warwick, Ashley Blom and Michael Whitehouse

ISBN 978-0-367-19877-0

Price £36.99

https://www.routledge.com/Apley-and-Solomons-Concise-System-of-Orthopaedics-and-Trauma/Warwick-Blom-Whitehouse/p/book/9780367198770

Don’t be fooled by the title containing the word concise, sure the coverage is concise, but this is a thick textbook running to an impressive 746 pages. It covers a huge amount of material giving it a substantial potential audience. It is now in a modern updated 5^th edition with the first edition preface reproduced in this current edition dated from 1959.  It has evolved into a fine textbook that will appeal to medical students, junior doctors and healthcare professional staff such as Physiotherapists, Occupational Therapists and Nurses who work in the musculoskeletal specialities as well General Practitioners and their trainees.

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£47.99 (Windows or Mac) from https://affinity.serif.com/en-gb/photo/

Most photographs taken nowadays are digital (probably the vast majority) and often these pictures are taken on high powered smartphones. As a result, we now have many really good and powerful pictures hanging around. Because they are digital, these images can be easily improved, clarified and manipulated by a huge variety of software which is available. Some are free and available online and can be pretty good. Whilst the paid for software can be very slick but sometimes very expensive. This software, Affinity Photo is a paid for product but don’t let that put you off. It is not expensive and can perform the simple to the complex tasks and lies on your hard drive rather than being available online. Once purchased, there are no other subscription charges.

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Third Edition

Edited by Timothy Jackson

Published by JP Medical Publishers http://jpmedpub.com/

ISBN 978-1-909836-94-5

http://jpmedpub.com/bookdetails.aspx?HBookID=2947

£49.95

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Moorfields-Manual-Ophthalmology-Timothy-Jackson/dp/190983694X/

This is an excellent book aimed as the preface implies at junior ophthalmology staff and opticians wanting high quality advice to diagnose and manage a patient in front of them.

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Derek Waller, Anthony Sampson and Andrew Hitchings

Published by Elsevier (November 21)

ISBN 978-0-7020-8159-0

Price £52.99

https://www.uk.elsevierhealth.com/medical-pharmacology-and-therapeutics-9780702081590.html

One of my favourite medical subjects has always been clinical pharmacology and therapeutics. Those healthcare practitioners who are prescribers do spend a fair amount of time, processing and signing and thinking about prescriptions both acute and repeat. So, it is important to know about the backgrounds, mode of actions, indications and side effects of drugs they prescribe (and much more) as well as their therapeutic necessity. Of course, there are plenty of excellent and free online resources out there which are most helpful but it is always good to have an uptodate textbook at hand which has the bonus of a web product and app built into the purchase price.

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Second edition

Edited by Jonathan Barratt, Peter Topham, Sue Carr, Mustafa Arici and Adrian Liew

Published by Oxford University Press (Published July 21)

ISBN 978-0-19-877718-2

Price £79.99

https://global.oup.com/academic/product/oxford-desk-reference-nephrology-9780198777182

This is a handsome and sturdily built hardback book which is part of the impressive publisher’s desk reference series (check out the others at https://global.oup.com/academic/search?q=oxford+desk+reference&cc=gb&lang=en) and is an excellent and powerful review of the topic. The bulk of the contributors are British and so will reflect UK based nephrology practice but there is also an important input from international contributors.

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A practical guide

Edited by James Rippe and John Foreyt

Published by CRC press (Published Sept 2021)

ISBN 978-0-367-55178-0

Price £42.99

https://www.routledge.com/Obesity-Prevention-and-Treatment-A-Practical-Guide/Rippe-Foreyt/p/book/9780367551780

This 230 page paperback, is an excellent review of a hugely important topic that covers many branches of medicine. According to the preface, it was only in 2013 that obesity was recognised as a disease by the American Medical Association. This I found was very surprising but there is plenty more morsels of knowledge within this book to attract a reader. Since obesity affects a large number of medical disciplines, then there is a potentially large audience for this book.

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A Problem-Orientated Approach

9^th Edition

Edited by Alfred Tallia, Joseph Scherger and Nancy Dickey

ISBN 978-0-323-69811-5

Price £70.99

https://www.uk.elsevierhealth.com/swansons-family-medicine-review-9780323698115.html

What we call General Practice in this country, is also called Primary Care and sometimes Family Medicine here and elsewhere. I will settle on the description of primary care for the rest of this review and although every speciality considers itself large, NHS Primary Care certainly fits that description in this country. It is large in terms of numbers of staff utilised and in terms of breadth and depth of the topic areas as Primary Care can cover a huge number of specialties. This makes keeping up to date a big undertaking which is very important, and we all have our own ways of handling this crucial activity.

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Colorectal Surgery 2^nd Edition

Edited by Richard Molloy, Graham MacKay, Helen Dorrance and Patrick O’Dwyer

ISBN 978-0-19-289624-7

Price £59.99

https://global.oup.com/academic/product/colorectal-surgery-9780192896247?q=978-0-19-289624-7&cc=gb&lang=en

This is the second book, I have reviewed in this series (the first book I reviewed can be seen at https://www.glycosmedia.com/oxford-specialist-handbooks-in-surgery/ which is a superb book on paediatric surgery) and like the first book, it exudes excellence. It is a relatively small paperback but chunky book and runs to just over 650 pages and is a modest size. But, it sure packs a punch and is a superb review of colorectal surgery.

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11th Edition (Inkling eBook)

By Emad Qayed and Nikrad Shahnavaz

Price £50.39  https://www.uk.elsevierhealth.com/sleisenger-and-fordtrans-gastrointestinal-and-liver-disease-review-and-assessment-9780323636599.html

This book which is a review and assessment book is an obvious sister companion to the excellent textbook Sleisenger and Fordtran’s Gastrointestinal and Liver Disease which I have previously reviewed here https://www.glycosmedia.com/sleisenger-and-fordtrans-gastrointestinal-and-liver-disease-2/  Ideally you should have the textbook as the study and reference guide and use this book to test your knowledge.

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Richard Ashton and Barbara Leppard

Published by CRC press (Published April 2021)

ISBN 978-0-367-08597-1

Price £42.99

https://www.routledge.com/Differential-Diagnosis-in-Dermatology/Ashton-Leppard/p/book/9780367085971

For many people, dermatology is a closed book and a difficult subject to approach. Personally, I have always liked dermatology and no matter where you are in the dermatology appreciation/understanding/confidence spectrum-this outstanding book is for you.

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Stephen Chapman, Grace Robinson, Rahul Shrimanker, Chris Turnbull and John Wrightson

Published by Oxford University Press (May 2021)

ISBN 978-0-19-883711-4

Price £36.99

https://global.oup.com/academic/product/oxford-handbook-of-respiratory-medicine-4e-9780198837114?cc=gb&lang=en&

This is another blockbuster from the highly respected Oxford Medical Handbook Series and as expected, this is superb. Like the other siblings in the series, it is packed with huge amounts of information relevant to clinical practice, in the title topic. Yet it remains a handbook, albeit chunky at 1002 pages but at the same time, it is portable, informative and educational.

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Philip Buttaravoli, Stephen Leffler and R. Ramsay Herrington

ISBN 978-0-323-66203-1

Published by Elsevier (June 2021)

Price £74.54

https://www.uk.elsevierhealth.com/minor-emergencies-9780323662031.html

Put simply, this book is brilliant and covers areas that straddle presentations to Emergency Departments, Urgent Care facilities and Primary Care. Doctors, especially GPs and their clinical staff will find this book incredibly useful and I have not seen many books cover this particular subject area.

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Joseph Jankovic, John Mazziotta, Scott Pomeroy and Nancy Newman

Published April 2021

Published by Elsevier

Price £311.99 (eBook)

https://www.uk.elsevierhealth.com/bradley-and-daroffs-neurology-in-clinical-practice-2-volume-set-9780323642613.html

This is a substantial and scholarly review of clinical neurology, and I had the pleasure to review the eBook only, using the publisher’s inkling digital offering. This is a well tried and trusted format that not only works seamlessly but is easy to use. It can be viewed as an online web-based offering viewed on a computer screen without the need to download any data. As part of the purchase package, the book can also be downloaded onto smartphones and tablets as well via an app. Both the web based offering and app are easy to use.

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Published October 2020

By Awanish Kumar and Ashwini Kumar

Published by CRC Press

ISBN  978-0-367-54457-7

Price £42.99

https://www.routledge.com/Diabetes-Epidemiology-Pathophysiology-and-Clinical-Management/Kumar-Kumar/p/book/9780367544577

This excellent book is a first edition and I am sure in the not too distant future we will see a second edition. One reason for this is that diabetes (mellitus) is a fast moving topic with plenty of regular change in all the subject areas of this book. In addition, I would like to think that this book will be popular and well received and that will also contribute to the rise of a second edition.

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Paediatric Surgery

2nd Edition

Edited by Mark Davenport and Paolo Coppi

Published by Oxford University Press (January 2021)

ISBN 978-0-19-879869-9

Price £44.99

https://global.oup.com/academic/product/paediatric-surgery-9780198798699?cc=gb&lang=en&

This is the first time I have looked at a book in this series (Oxford Specialist Handbooks In Surgery) and I was very impressed. This is different from the well known and highly regarded Oxford Medical Handbook series (https://global.oup.com/academic/content/series/o/oxford-medical-handbooks-oxhmed/?lang=en&cc=gb) and have their own characteristics see https://global.oup.com/academic/content/series/o/oxford-specialist-handbooks-in-surgery-oshsurg/?lang=en&cc=gb As the title suggests, these are specialist handbooks and in this particular handbook, the core audience are relevant surgical trainees, established specialists and specialist nursing staff -and in this particular book all in the subject of paediatric surgery. From a personal perspective, after reviewing this book, I would add primary care to this list.

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