Editors: Carin A. Hagberg MD, Carlos A. Artime MD, and William H. Daily MD.
Contributors: A. Paul Aucoin MD, David Cattano, MD, PhD, Lara Ferrario MD,
Sam D. Gumbert MD, Ranu Jain MD, Ankur Khosla MD, MBA, MS, Katherine C. Normand MD, Jay R. Pinsky MD, Henrique Vale MD, and the three editors named above.
Publisher: Oxford University Press – 192 pages
Book Review by: Nano Khilnani
This book comes with a compact disc that contains video demonstrations of airway management techniques.
Usually, anesthesiologists deal with the airway and attendant issues relating to its management. But many times, emergency physicians and other clinicians have to deal with patients who have difficulty breathing.
But tools and devices used to deal with airway management are constantly changing. So are techniques in this field, which is a science as well as an art, needing constant upgrading of skills.
The authors of this book write that trainees as well as experienced physicians and medical technicians need to achieve proficiency with a number of instruments and methods. A constant updating of skills relating to the airway is need by all those involved in it, the authors contend.
The Difficult Airway: A Practical Guide is a compact clinical handbook in spiral notebook format that offers practical guidance for all airway managers to improve their success rates in the use of present-day airway devices and techniques.
This book lays out clinical scenarios in a user-friendly manner that follows the approach clinicians encounter at educational workshops. Parts of the book deal with different types of devices and techniques, such as awake intubation.
This book provides different algorithms and pharmacologic adjuncts useful in airway management, different types of equipment, pre-oxygenation, and patient positioning strategies to ensure effective airway management.
Each of the 18 chapters of this portable book is organized in a simple-to-use, user-friendly format. The chapters start with an Objective, followed by an Introduction, headings of topics (in large red letters) relating to the subject matter of the chapter title, headings of subtopics (in small blue letters), a Summary, and a list of Suggested Readings at the end of each chapter.
Visual aids in the form of charts, full-color photos of devices and instruments and patients using them, sketches demonstrating techniques, and tables providing data and instructions, are provided that help the student absorb the material more easily. An ample number of “Tips” are also presented in boxed form throughout the book.
This is a valuable portable handbook on airway management that provides practical advice to all those in this field of health care.
Carin A. Hagberg. MD is Joseph A. Gabel Professor and Chair of the Department of Anesthesiology at the University of Texas Medical School in Houston.
Carlos A. Artime, MD is Assistant Professor in the Department of Anesthesiology at the University of Texas Medical School in Houston.
William H. Daily, MD is Assistant Professor in the Department of Anesthesiology at the University of Texas Medical School in Houston.
