The Physiology and Medicine of Diving

Rating:
Summary: easy to read and pleasnt book
Review: The book gifs an good overall view to the beginning, or more experienced doctor (or layman) in the physiology and pathophysiology of hyperbaric medicine. The book is rather complete and easy to read, it reads more as a novel than a scientific book. I use it as standard book for many questions in the field of diving or hyperbaric medicine. Besides this it gives a view at the treatment of diving disorders.

Rating:
Summary: Definitive technical text
Review: This book is probably the standard work in the field of diving physiology. The contributers are the leaders in the field and this well referenced and thought out book is certainly a must for people who are involved in diving research and development.

The reason for only 4 out of 5 is that the book is probably too technical for the average person you need a reasonably good background in both physiology and hyperbaric medicine to get a true benefit from this book.

Otherwise a seminal text in the field

Rating:
Summary: Excellent diving physiology text
Review: This is an in depth treatment of the physiology of diving. We use it as a reference at the UCLA Gonda Center for Wound Healing and Hyperbaric Medicine where we operate two large recompression chambers. The style is readable and useful, but I believe that interest in it will be limited to physicians, physiologists,and kinesiologists. For those interested in a less in-depth treatment consider the excellent U.S. Navy Diving Manual available on CD-ROM.
Another text more heavily weighted towards medicine is Diving Medicine by Bove. All three of these texts grace are shelves and are referred to regularly.
If the price puts you off, try lurking until a used one comes up.