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Reviews and Notes: Emergency Medicine: Infectious Disease in Emergency Medicine

Infectious Disease in Emergency Medicine Judith C. Brillman and Ronald W. Quenzer; eds. 951 pages. Boston: Little, Brown; 1992. $150.00. Second only to trauma, infections make up the most common reason for which patients seek emergency care. It is a challenge for the emergency physician to be able to recognize the wide range in clinical presentation of infectious diseases in patients of all ages and circumstances. In light of this demand, a good general reference on infectious diseases geared toward the emergency physician is essential. This textbook meets that need. This multiauthor text is generally well written, and most chapters are extensively referenced with current articles. The authors are primarily emergency medicine practitioners. The book is divided into three major sections. The first covers general information on infectious diseases; the chapter on anti-infectives is particularly good, and the extensive use of tables organizes the material well. The second section of the book stands out as its major strength. Chapters in this section cover infections in specific patient populations (for example, the immunocompromised, the very old or very young, or those with certain symptoms, such as fever and rash or fever and lymphadenopathy). This organization emphasizes the differential diagnosis based on patient presentation, an approach that more closely approximates the actual practice of medicine. Infections grouped by organ system are covered in the final section of the book. Arranging the book in this fashion has led to the duplication of some information in separate sections, but extensive random sampling of this repetition did not show any internal inconsistencies. Although this textbook has many strong points, several weaknesses are notable. The organization of the book may require a reader to look in several places in the text to find the answer to a specific question. Tables are used extensively and effectively, but their placement within chapters at times disrupts the flow of the text. Despite its weaknesses, this textbook has handily accomplished its goal of highlighting the emergency aspects of infectious diseases.