Smith and Aitkenhead's textbook of anaesthesia

Section 1: Basic sciences. General principles of pharmacology -- Data, statistics and clinical trials -- Inhalational anaesthetics and medical gases -- Intravenous anaesthetics and sedatives -- Local anaesthetics -- Pain -- Nausea and vomiting -- Muscle function and neuromuscular blockade -- Cardiovascular system -- Respiratory system -- Renal system -- Fluid, electrolyte and acid-base balance -- Metabolism, the stress response and thermoregulation -- Blood, coagulation and transfusion -- Section 2: Physics and apparatus. Basic physics -- Equipment -- Clinical measurement and monitoring -- Section 3: Fundamentals of anaesthesia & perioperative medicine. Quality and safety -- Preoperative assessment -- Coexisting disease -- Consent and information -- The practical conduct of anaesthesia -- Airway management -- Pain management -- Local and regional anaesthesia -- Complications -- Management of critical incidents -- Resuscitation -- Postoperative care -- Section 4: Clinical anaesthesia. The high-risk surgical patient -- The older surgical patient -- The obese patient -- Paediatric anaesthesia -- Day surgery -- General, gynaecological and genitourinary surgery -- Orthopaedic surgery -- ENT, maxillofacial and dental surgery -- Ophthalmic surgery -- Vascular, endocrine and plastic surgery -- Neurosurgery -- Thoracic surgery -- Cardiac surgery -- Obstetric anaesthesia and analgesia -- Emergency and trauma surgery -- Anaesthesia in low and middle-income areas -- Anaesthesia outside the operating theatre -- Organ transplantation -- Intensive care medicine.

This highly successful textbook is internationally renowned as a core text for trainee anaesthetists and is essential reading for candidates for the Fellowship of Royal College of Anaesthetists and similar examinations. The previous 6th edition was awarded First Prize at the BMA Medical Book awards. The book provides full coverage of the sciences underpinning practice in anaesthesia, critical care and pain management together with details of clinical anaesthesia and perioperative care. In combining these aspects, a generation of anaesthetists have found the textbook invaluable during the first few years of training as well as when preparing for the FRCA and similar professional examinations. The goal for this Seventh Edition has remained to equip the reader with the basic knowledge and practical considerations required to administer anaesthesia and perioperative care for a whole range of surgical conditions in patients with all common medical comorbidities. Reflecting the expanding role of anaesthesia beyond the operating theatre it also includes essential material related to safety and quality assurance, consent, resuscitation, intensive care medicine, pre-hospital care and chronic pain management. This book's scope includes the full range of clinical practice, from anaesthetic equipment and pre-operative assessment through to post-operative care, local anaesthesia, anaesthesia for individual specialties and the management of chronic pain. The text covers the principles of pharmacology, anaesthetic agents and physics for the anaesthetist.