Third edition Published 2015
Timothy White, Samuel MacKenzie and Alasdair Gray
Published by Elsevier
ISBN 978-0-7020-5728-1
Price £49.99
As always, reading the preface adds some interest and useful background to the book and Ronald McRae was a Scottish Orthopaedic surgeon who practiced in Glasgow. He initially produced a pocketbook which has now grown into this very impressive three author book. Interestingly the home of the authors is based in Edinburgh. Moving on from the history of the book, it is an excellent, compact yet detailed textbook; rich in practical information helping a healthcare professional manage a patient with an appropriate problem. It is also very well produced-it is printed on semi glossy, high quality paper and is superbly and liberally illustrated. Needless to say there are plenty of X rays as well as other helpful images within the book.
The book runs to over 600 pages and yet it appears compact and contains a wide wealth of information which is well written. It is full of practical and useful information in dealing with a patient and it is easy to quickly read over a section before dealing with a specific clinical issue. It is ideal for junior doctor in an emergency department or someone working in a similar post in orthopaedics. It is a great book for a junior doctor wanting to obtain an answer quickly and become an “instant expert” on a specific scenario. The book although compact is not easily portable in everyday activity but bundled with the price is an electronic edition which is available as a web product and probably more usefully as an app for a smartphone or tablet. However, at the time of writing this review, the app version did not seem to be available but the web version was.
I also enjoyed dipping in and out of this book and reading small sections-it is well designed for this purpose. Although I don’t deal with acute trauma on a regular basis, this was an interesting up to date review of the subject. Best of all, it is priced at a competitive rate and I think this represents good value for someone who is likely to be a regular user. I don’t think it is expensive and when the app version comes on stream (I have used other products from the same publisher and they are excellent)-I am sure this will be brilliant to have on a smartphone along with access to the paper book.
This is an excellent, well priced practical book which is well written, informative and very easy to look up and read around a topic quickly. For the right person, this should represent a good investment and the excellent illustrations and explanatory text coupled with the high production values makes this a classy product.
Dr Harry Brown
April 2016
Glycosmedia is also available as an App: