When was the last time you opened a textbook? Do you do it less often than you did 5 years ago? Times have changed, and shelves are buckling under the weight of prized and trusted reference textbooks gathering dust, rarely removed. This is mainly because of the exponential increase in useable material easily available and accessible on the internet, but also, I suspect, because for many trainees their shift rota interferes with their textbook reading time. Surely some time soon all textbooks will be routinely published on the internet? Having said that, I do not think we should underestimate the trusted tome. As suggested by the title, this is a “textbook”, not a “handbook” or a “pocket guide”. However, it is neatly sized and its soft cover, with a black and white pastel image of a doctor peering into an ill‐looking child's throat, does give it a user‐friendly, and actually rather inviting, feel.
This book is written by Australian authors and attempts to be incredibly inclusive, covering all aspects of acute paediatric presentations. Well‐written introductory sections describe the approach to a paediatric patient, resuscitation, trauma and wound management, followed by material divided into chapters covering each body system. There are useful and important sections on transport and common procedures, including a good chapter on analgesia. The initial chapter on the approach to the paediatric patient (why “paediatric patient” and not “child”?) is a well‐written introduction to formal clinical assessment, laying appropriate emphasis on observation, which is a really important part of clinical assessment of children.
One of the first things to strike the reader is the wealth of text; however, the typesetting into columns helps overcome this, and the use of figures, tables and boxes is good. The chapter on dermatology offers good‐quality colour photographs. There are black and white photographs elsewhere; it is a shame the colour‐coded (sic) paediatric resuscitation tape is one of them. The line drawings are of very high quality and are used effectively in the chapter on procedures. This chapter is very well set out and instructive, including specific paragraphs on complications and tips.
Each subject chapter is subdivided into bite‐sized sections, which are essentially symptom based. Differential diagnoses are then discussed in some detail. Each section starts with a box of “Essentials” covering the main points with the chapter. Some sections end with a box of “Controversies and Future Directions” detailing those areas in that topic which encourage debate, as well as suggestions for future areas of research or development.
Web‐based material has the advantage of being current and easily updated, and the topics to suffer in this way are the resuscitation guidelines, which have changed recently in the UK. Some publishers do offer web‐based chapter updates, but I could find no mention of such updates for this text.
Overall, this is a good reference text for anyone aspiring to a career in emergency medicine. On the publicity blurb on the website, it “aims to be comprehensive covering all the major topics that present … giving a consensus approach to assessment and treatment, based on the latest evidence”. This it achieves easily. I enjoyed reading it. It made a refreshing change from trawling the web for information. I should dip into textbooks more often and give my shelves some respite.