"I approached this book, when asked to review it, with some scepticism. The idea of putting together the clinical experience of surgical and medical senior registrars and younger consultants was a good one, but how could it be converted into a worthwhile book, and what would this mean to those who read it?
However, the more I read the more impressed I became. The authors have chosen a series of very important acute problems which are likely to be met at some stage by all those working in hospitals. They have conveyed an excellent sense of the clinical picture, giving a reality to the information that is conveyed subsequently. The book is said to be aimed at medical students but the essential information and patterns of thought will certainly be relevant to and appropriate for all practicing doctors who have to deal with acute problems.
The authors have appreciated that probably the most difficult thing for clinical students to learn is not the facts relating to pathophysiology but the appropriate pattern of clinical thought, in which history, physical examination and the appropriate use of organ imaging and laboratory data must be combined in the differential diagnosis and integration of problems. They recognise that differential diagnosis must be related to management decisions and identify those situations where emergency management must take precedence over definitive pathophysiological diagnosis in the early stages.
The book will be of value to graduate, undergraduate and continuing medical education students if used as a trigger to stimulate appropriate patterns of clinical thought." J R Lawrence, Medical Journal of Australia
welcome departure from the traditional stodgy medical textbook using the case history approach. Of definite appeal to junior hospital medical staff but General Practitioners should find plenty here to interest them." Dr JM Sager, Medix-UK, July 2003
is the second edition of a popular revision tool aimed primarily at medical students and those in the early stages of their medical careers. I would strongly recommend this book to those approaching finals, particularly with the advent of the OSCE." Dan O'Carroll, Alexandra Hospital, Redditch, Hospital Medicine, January 2004
