Anesthesia and the patient with liver disease.

Abstract

Once upon a time, not so long ago, anesthetic knowledge (at least for examination purposes) came from the "textbook"; usually this was a single author or departmental effort. Lately, these textbooks have grown in size and number of authors, the gestation period and cost have increased, and the content has become increasingly general in nature. For the anesthetist in search of a detailed review of a topic, the only recourse up until now has been the anesthesia journals or an occasional monograph. These latter sources are not always readily available, particularly for those without easy access to a medical library. Most recently, the series books have begun to appear. These books have focused on particular anesthetic problems, usually clinically orientated, with a supervising editor and a number of contributions from experts in the field. Anesthesia and the Patient with Liver Disease is such an example. To try to cover liver disease in nine chapters and 184 pages is overly optimistic; therefore, quite severe compromises have been made. Although many topics have been covered, the major problem with the book is the order of presentation. For example, postoperative jaundice occupies chapter 2, yet one has to wait until page 164 to find the assessment table for preoperative liver function and the predicted results of anesthesia and surgery. Rarities seem to have been given more emphasis than those problems that the anesthetist, working in a nonspecialized hospital, is