Anesth Analg 2005;100:907
© 2005 International Anesthesia Research Society
BOOK AND MULTIMEDIA REVIEWS
Wylie and Churchill-Davidson’s A Practice of Anesthesia, 7th ed.
Norig Ellison, MD
Professor of Anesthesia; University of Pennsylvania; Philadelphia, PA
Wylie and Churchill-Davidson’s A Practice of Anesthesia, 7th ed. Healy TJ, Knight PR, eds. London: Arnold Press, 2003. ISBN 0-340-73130-3. 1435 pp, $198.50.
The first editions of three major American anesthesia texts were published in 1981 (Miller’s Anesthesia), 1989 (Barash et al’s Clinical Anesthesia), and 1998 (Longnecker et al’s Principles and Practice of Anesthesiology). For anesthesiologists trained before 1981, one of the earlier editions of A Practice of Anesthesia was the major text used in training and preparing for examinations. Reviewing the seventh edition is not really revisiting those early editions—e.g., both editors and the six contributors to the first edition published in 1960 were affiliated with St. Thomas Hospital in London, whereas the current edition has both an American and British editor with 148 contributors, including 69 American, 56 British, and 23 contributors from 10 other countries. Truly, as in other areas, medicine in general and anesthesia in particular have gone global.
The book is divided into five sections with 86 chapters. The first section on Anatomy, Physiology, Pathology, and Basic Pharmacology comprises 25 chapters and 412 pages; the second on Anesthetic Considerations and Techniques 16 chapters and 274 pages; the third on Subspecialty-Oriented Management of Anesthesia 22 chapters and 359 pages; the fourth on Perioperative and Intensive Care 14 chapters and 243 pages; and the fifth on Anesthesia and Society 9 chapters and 81 pages. The last section is unique in that it addresses how the specialty of anesthesia interacts with society as a whole. In this last section, there are consecutive chapters providing American and British perspectives on medicolegal matters and consent issues. Additional chapters in this section address stress, bereavement care, quality assurance, ethics, and epidemiology.
Attempting to read any of the aforementioned four books completely is seldom done except for a few candidates preparing for Boards or "those preparing to approach the entrance to the examination hall" (from the preface to the seventh edition). Rather the book is used as a reference in controversial or complex issues. With that in mind, this reviewer kept his copy of A Practice of Anesthesia on his desk and actively looked for issues that required consultation. For each issue, a section addressing the issue was found.
The writing is uniformly clear and the accompanying diagrams, many of which are original, contribute greatly to clarifying the concepts or issues being discussed. Three minor criticisms are offered: 1) A volume containing 1,400 plus pages occupies three and a half inches of shelf space; pages do not lie flat when opened; and photocopying is difficult. Is it time for a two-volume edition? 2) The variation in the number of references was considerable, ranging from 15 in Chapter 77 to 406 in Chapter 12, and disconcerting. This reviewer would have expected editorial oversight to result in a more uniform pattern. No, all chapters would not have the same number, but a 27-fold variation? 3) The use of multicolor print and shaded boxes to provide emphasis is not employed.
In summary, the seventh edition of A Practice of Anesthesia is a worthy successor to the original Wylie and Churchill Davidson’s edition and consistent with their intent to provide "a broader view of the subject and a better foundation from which to assess the value of the specialty" (from the preface to the first edition).
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