Harrison's Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine

Fields of Medicine: Pulmonary and critical care medicine.

Format: Paperback book. Trim size: 8.5 × 0.86 inches.

Recommended Readership: Pulmonologists, intensivists, surgeons, and anesthesiologists.

Purpose: State-of-the-art knowledge and management of pulmonary and critical care medicine topics, including diagnosis of respiratory disorders, diseases of the respiratory system, and common critical illnesses and syndromes.

Content: Derived from the 17th edition of Harrison's Principles of Internal Medicine (ISBN 978-0-07-146633-2), Harrison's Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine is a smaller, stand-alone paperback that focuses exclusively on topics related to pulmonary and critical care medicine. In keeping with the book's multidisciplinary team approach to the management of the critical care patient, contributors include intensivists, pathologists, surgeons, neurologists, pediatricians, and pharmacologists. Primarily targeted for the practicing resident or physician, the book assumes a basic level of medical knowledge. For example, there are no traditional chapters on cardiopulmonary pharmacology and physiology. Instead, the book comprises 45 chapters, which are divided into 5 sections. Sections include “Diagnosis of Respiratory Disorders,” “Diseases of the Respiratory System,” “General Approach to the Critically Ill Patient,” “Common Critical Illnesses and Syndromes,” and “Disorders Complicating Critical Illnesses and their Management.” Coverage includes up-to-date information on the diagnosis of respiratory disorders, diseases of the respiratory system, and common critical illnesses, including their complications and outcomes. In addition to the above 5 sections listed above, there is a separate “Review and Self-Assessment” section consisting of over 100 multiple-choice questions with detailed answers; and there is an appendix with laboratory values and function tests of clinical importance. Indeed, these last 2 sections contain some of the most useful, hands-on information for the practicing clinician. Finally, the book includes hundreds of high-quality diagnostic photos, tables, and figures that greatly enhance the overall educational impact.

Strengths: This book is designed with the practicing clinician in mind; emphasis is given to the presentation, diagnosis (including differential), and management of critical care disorders. For quick reference, the treatment of each disorder is shown in highlighted text, which is a particularly nice feature. Also useful is the inclusion of icons throughout the text to emphasize certain key points. For example, the “global” icon calls attention to key epidemiologic and clinical differences in the practice of medicine throughout the world. Similarly, the “genetic” icon identifies clinical conditions with an explicit genetic relationship. Finally, unlike many texts that focus solely on acute management, this book also includes information on follow-up management and potential long-term complications.

Weaknesses: In general, information within each chapter is presented in “bulleted” fashion, making the text easily readable. However, like all bulleted texts, the information at times is presented with minimal explanation. Compounding this problem is the lack of references within the chapter text. Instead, there is a short, unnumbered bibliography at the end of each chapter (usually fewer than 10–15 references). Therefore, readers who wish to pursue a particular topic in greater depth are basically left to fend for themselves. In addition, there are non-pulmonary critical care topics that suffer due to brevity. For example, the diagnosis and management of disseminated intravascular coagulation is covered in only a few paragraphs. However, these are relatively minor weaknesses that do not detract from the overall outstanding quality of this book.

Overall Grade: vvvvv