Current Therapy of Trauma and Surgical Critical Care, 3rd Edition

By: Juan A. Asensio, and Wayne J. Meredith 

ISBN: 9780323697873 

Publication Date: June 27, 2023 

Reviewer: David James Dries, MSE, MD (Regions Hospital) 

Description 

This book is a comprehensive single-volume volume devoted to acute therapy for injured and surgical patients. This third edition is an update to the previous version, which was published in 2016. 

Purpose 

The book is designed to provide a broad summary of optimal initial treatment, postoperative management, and critical care considerations of patients with various kinds of traumatic injuries and major surgical procedures. It presents expert opinions and recommendations in concise chapters, and the content is organized to rapidly provide succinct, focused guidance on patient management. 

Illustrations support the text and present tables, figures, and photographs of bedside approaches to care. The entire volume is available online with links to essential primary literature pertinent to each presentation. 

Audience 

Trainees and providers confronted with acute surgical illness are an ideal audience for this book. The authors represent international authorities and the contributors have produced many of the standard guidelines for acute surgical patient care. The authors and contributors emanate from various trauma systems in the U.S. 

Features 

This attractive book contains 80 chapters. Chapters are organized according to broad topics and contain both print and electronic content. Appropriately, initial chapters describe trauma systems, and pre-hospital care, and summarize initial management strategies. Subsequent chapters describe approaches to injury by the organ system. Presentations include insults to the central nervous system, head and neck trauma, and injuries to the torso. Complex topics include traumatic brain injury, spinal cord trauma, and cerebrovascular insults. Torso injury topics feature various forms of cardiac trauma, injuries to the esophagus, insults to intra-abdominal organs, and gynecologic injury. Focused presentations accompanying chapters on torso insults describe military strategies for blood product use and management of exsanguinating hemorrhage through bedside procedures and selected fluid administration. One attractive feature is the reflection on lessons learned from the military in battlefield conditions, as described by military trauma surgeons. Torso and extremity vascular trauma is another topic where the advice of published expert practitioners is invaluable. Two subsequent groups of chapters describe important critical care topics related to the optimal management of injury. 

Cardiopulmonary support features chapters on advanced and fundamental mechanical ventilation, the role of renal replacement therapy in resuscitation, and the treatment of coagulation disorders, along with monitoring and regulation of cardiac function. A second group of critical care presentations includes relevant immunology, infectious disease concerns, nutrition support, and therapy for thromboembolic disease. One important presentation provides an update on extracorporeal membrane oxygenation with relevance to trauma providers. Final chapters include management of outcome data, the role of palliative care, rehabilitation, and assessment of brain death and, where appropriate, organ donation. Chapters are concise and clearly written with obvious input from experts in the management of selected problems. Tables, line drawings, and photographs reproduce well. References and footnotes are not included in the print chapters, but are available with links to primary literature in the online version of the book. Front pages list and group chapters and provide the authors’ credentials, while a detailed concluding index contains citations from both print and online chapters. The print version includes a fraction of chapters in each content area, whereas complementary material is readily available online. 

Assessment 

This third edition book has been clearly updated from previous versions, making effective use of online materials to support presentations, enable individual access to figures, and provide links to primary literature sources, reinforcing the assertions made. This volume complements other summary texts compiling information on the management of injury. One of the book’s many attractive features is its effective emphasis on critical care designed to support each presentation. The book is an appropriate addition for trauma providers and institutions. 

©Doody’s Review Service, 2023, David James Dries, MSE, MD (Regions Hospital), Doody’s Score: 94 – 4 Stars! 

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