Practical gastroenterology. 2nd Edition

Practical gastroenterology offers brief but expert coverage of gastrointestinal, biliary, hepatic, and pancreatic diseases. The chapters stated by nationally recognized lecturers and field authorities selected for their vast clinical and teaching experience. With its consistent formatting chapter by chapter, this text makes it simple to locate the practical information you need on diagnosis, testing, disease processes, and up-to-date treatment and management strategies. The book is overall concise and thorough enough for gastroenterologist, hepatologist, internist, surgeons, family physicians, radiologist with gastroenterology interest, family practitioners, pediatric gastroenterology, gastroenterologist fellows, residents, and students. The top-to-bottom (mouth to rectum) organization is methodical and easy to follow. It provides easy-to-use source of essential topics in diseases of the esophagus, stomach, small intestine, colon, rectum, pancreas, liver, and bile duct. It provides a strong focus on the clinical aspects of gastrointestinal disease.

The second edition includes new chapters covering therapeutic endoscopy, inflammatory bowel disease, New modalities such as nuclear medicine and position emission tomography (PET). There are 2 chapters on common pediatric conditions such as recurrent abdominal pain and jaundice. The chapters such as nuclear medicine and PET are very well performed and a useful enlargement of the scope of the book. Some chapters highlighted the specific scenarios in managing ward patients, emergency room and clinic patients such as “how to investigate a patient with jaundice” and “acute pancreatitis: do’s and don’ts”.

The useful graphic material make reading easy, and the illustrations of images particularly vivid. In 9 weeks, I have had the book at hand and on trial, I found it easier to dip into chapters. In short, this is a very good practical book in gastroenterology and hepatology. It clearly achieves the editors’ goals. Its main strength is the mass of reasonably arranged information. Its weaknesses are the lack of an editorial presence and poor information on pathophysiology. The references are brief, well-chosen reference list, which can direct readers to the most useful articles on a topic.

Finally to establish a place for a specialized book like this, the editor and publisher must identify a market and an audience. Because of this book’s cost, size, and weight, the market will be libraries in medical schools, large hospitals, and divisions of gastroenterology with training programs. The audience for this encyclopedic work will be primarily fellows in gastroenterology, intellectually hungry house officers, and practicing clinical gastroenterologists.