Pediatric Cardiac Intensive Care

Rating:
Summary: Better suited to the nurses than the doctors
Review: The pedagogy of Pediatric Cardiology is already well covered by two masterfully written texts: Moss and Garson. They are, admittedly, tough acts to follow. A clinically oriented text, directed specifically toward the difficult problems encountered in the intensive care setting, however, would be appreciated. This text attempts to fill that need.

Not surprisingly, pediatric cardiac Intensive care is largely dedicated to perioperative management of congenital heart disease, and this text approaches it in this manner. After the expected chapters in monitoring, pharmacology and so on, large sections are devoted to preoperative care, operative considerations and posoperative care. There is a generic discussion of extracorporeal support and dialysis. The text ends with consideration of social and ethical issues,

I had hoped, when I read this book that it would enhance and expand the information found in general texts. For example, I know the litany of agents used for sedating posoperative patients. What I would like is some discussion of which is useful in a given set of circumstances, and how each might intereact with other aspects of care. Does any provide a specific advantage in a given clinical situation or represent a unique hemodynamic risk? This text generally does not explore cardiac care in this depth.

The text does have its strengths. The descriptions of surgical repair are well done and the illustrations of them are clear. They would be very useful in describing the surgical procedure to parents or staff. The generic approach is most useful to nursing staff and respiratory therapists, especially those just orienting to the PCCU.

Pediatric Cardiac Intensive Care is a well organized general text on the subject. Its approach is best suited to the nursing staff. Cardiac fellows, attendings and cardiac intensivists will find little here that expands their knowledge.

Rating:
Summary: Multidisciplinary
Review: What I liked most about this book was it's multidisciplinary aproach and down-to-earth explanations. Wer good dravings of the procedures. It lost one star since it was not easy to find information by surgical procedure.