Emergencies in Clinical Surgery

Due to reduced working hours amongst junior doctors, a quick-reference, practical guide to common emergency surgical problems and trauma is needed more than ever. 'Emergencies in Clinical Surgery' aims to make the life of junior surgeons easier. It is written in an easily accessible, concise style, and is in a pocket-sized format that means that readers are able to refer to it on the ward, or on the way down to the Emergency Department. The use of icons indicating the degree of urgency for each condition helps to focus the mind of the reader and aid in the identification of true emergencies. Algorithms are used extensively throughout the book in order to simplify management decisions.The introduction describes a 'three speed' approach to the sick surgical patient, appropriate for the ward and emergency room. In addition, advice is given on how best to communicate with members of the surgical and anaesthetic team and how to prepare the patient for theatre. Emergency surgical problems that commonly present in AandE or on the ward are dealt with in Section 1 using a problem-based approach. Conditions are cross-referenced to more detailed, disease-specific topics in Section 2 with fuller descriptions of specific pathologies with comments on definitive investigations and management. Common complications after endoscopy, surgery, or interventional radiology are dealt with in Section 3, while Section 4 contains a description of commonly performed ward-based procedures and their complications. Miscellaneous issues surrounding emergency surgery, such as how to survive the aftermath of an emergency, are described in Section 5.