Home

Book review

Indian Pediatr 2009;46: 76-79

	Manual of Newborn Care A Santhosh Kumar Hyderabad: Paras Medical Publisher; 2008. Pages 560, Price Rs. 450/-.
This book incorporates both a problem oriented approach as well as a discussion of core and common topics apart from a drug formulary at the end. The book is conveniently sized, very well bound and sturdy with an attractive hard cover. The two color printing, use of color photographs and good quality paper make it value for the price. The author has made a great effort in covering virtually everything about neonatal care which may be required by a pediatrician. Color photographs are of reasonably good quality but the radiology photographs (X rays, CT scans, nuclear scans) have come out poorly. Though the author has consulted and couple of other experts have reviewed some of the chapters, a single author book on a wide subject is likely to suffer in this era of ever expanding knowledge and changing evidence. Numerous ‘facts’ or practices mentioned by the author suffer from lack of evidence—here the book turns more into a traditional book based on personal practice and experience rather than scientific and collective evidence. It would have been useful if the author had given a bibliography for each chapter and quoted references for the practices. Inclusion of Intrauterine growth charts and head circumference charts is lacking even though their use has been advocated in the text. Having a subject index is a welcome part but it could have been done more carefully e.g. if you search laryngeal mask airway—you will not find it under "L" but under "U"— Use of Laryngeal Mask Airway". Overall, the author needs to be commended for such a herculean effort to produce a very attractive package almost single handedly. Praveen Kumar, Associate Professor, Department of Pediatrics, PGIMER, Chandigarh 160 012, India.
	Handbook of Sports Medicine for Children and Adolescents Swati Y Bhave, Dilip R Patel, Donald E Greydanus New Delhi: Jaypee Brothers; 2008. Pages 164, Price Rs. 195/-
Sports medicine and adolescent care are the new emerging specialties. The book is concise, easy to read, informative, has good print and is reasonably priced. It provides good insights to injuries and their management. The book opens up with a chapter on developmental readiness and evaluation of the child for participation in sports; followed by a chapter on sports pre-participation evaluation. Market is full of costly nutrients, energy drinks and body building foods, which can fool anyone of us. The truth is that a well balanced diet can be achieved by eating basic food groups. Chapter on Nutrition deals with all these aspects. The book also deals with the issue of use of drugs and supplements to enhance the performance in sports. Female athletes and their problems are also discussed. Sexual harassments and abuse by coach can exist not only in girls but also in boys. Coach can also motivate to give them their best in the sports field. There are informative chapters on sports psychology, sports and society, sports and media, sports aggression and basic principles for improving performance. Besides pediatricians, I also recommend this book for teachers, coaches, adolescents and their parents. Subhash C Arya, Senior Consultant and Chairman, Department of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine BLK Memorial Hospital, Pusa Road, New Delhi 110 005, India.
	IAP Speciality Series on Pediatric Cardiology R Krishna Kumar, Shakuntala S Prabhu, M Zulfikar Ahmed New Delhi: Jaypee Brothers; 2008. Pages 320, Price Rs. 395/-.
This publication deals with an important subspeciality of pediatrics. All the chapters in the book have been written precisely dealing with the most practical things we face in everyday practice. The introductory chapters on clinical examination, chest X rays and ECG’s have been written in a simple language and hence easily understandable. All the congenital heart diseases have been dealt with in detail including the symptomatology, clinical presentation, diagnosis and management. The chapter on timing of intervention will be a useful guide for practicing pediatricians to know when to refer the child to a pediatric cardiologist for further management. Guidelines for treatment of Rheumatic fever and Infective Endocarditis have been summarized well. The chapter on pediatric post-operative intensive care has highlighted important issues encountered by the intensivist in the ICU and their management. Various drugs commonly used in pediatric cardiology have been enumerated with their doses and side effects. The book is very well illustrated , the quality of pictures being excellent. The contributors are eminent pediatric cardiologists who have included the latest concepts and trends in cardiology. I hope this book will provide an overview of pediatric cardiology to the post graduate students as well as general practicing pediatricians. Viresh Mahajan, C-303, Parsmath Greenville, Sector - 48, Gurgaon, Haryana.
	Seizures and Epilepsy in Children – A Practical Guide Pratibha Singhi New Delhi: Noble Vision;2008. Pages: 280; Price: Rs. 350/-.
This book is intended for pediatric residents, pediatricians and physicians in general practice who need a practical approach to the diagnosis and management of the various epileptic disorders of childhood. There is an extremely useful chapter outlining the basic approach to pediatric electroencephalography (EEG). Each chapter ends with a highlighted box indicating key learning points and is followed by provision of key references and further reading. Probably the only issue which some readers may find disconcerting is the alteration from paragraph to bullet point style throughout the entire text. There are a number of clear and extremely helpful tables, as well as illustrated EEG panels and diagnostic images. Throughout, there is clarity in description and management suggestions. A minor criticism is the lack of specific time guidelines for initiation of benzodiazepine treatment in febrile seizures. There is no mention of the use of the sublingual form of lorazepam, which can be given as an alternative to intravenous or rectal medication. In the initial assessment period (from 0 to 3 minutes) of status epilepticus, there is no recommendation to draw anti-epileptic drug levels, if appropriate. The chapter devoted to "Management" reviews anti-epileptic drug treatment and the choice of neuroimaging investigations. It may have been helpful to re-order the presentation of the chapter on anti-epileptic drug pharmacogenetics to follow this discussion (rather than at the end of the book). There is also an appendix which lists the important and critical questions to be asked on historical review when a child presents with a seizure – this too may have been more helpful in the investigation and management chapter. Another concern is that the management discussion does not include a review of appropriate metabolic or genetic testing, which should be done for a child presenting with a seizure, although a subsequent chapter does discuss the genetics of the childhood epilepsy. Although this textbook has been written for use in India and other developing countries, there is sufficient practical information and a solid algorithmic approach to all elements of childhood seizures and epilepsy such that this book will be useful in the Americas and Europe for trainees and pediatric practitioners alike. Daune L MacGregor, Professor of Pediatrics (Neurology), The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
	Pediknots Pediatric Case Studies KE Elizabeth New Delhi: Peepee; 2008. Pages 443; Price 350/-.
This book covers almost all main fields of pediatrics in the form of case studies. Apart from case scenarios and discussion, the chapter on importance of pediatric case recording, vividly narrates the components of an ideal case record. Each case study comprises a case scenario, discussion on diagnosis, differential diagnosis, features of management, etc. Salient features to be discussed are emphasized. The collection of clinical photographs incorporates common to rare conditions. The language is simple to follow. The printing is reader friendly and pictures are clear. The case discussion and compilation of clinical photographs speaks by themselves about the experience and credential of the author who has put in a lot of effort in compiling the case scenarios and photographs. The book is worth possessing by a clinician, especially postgraduates who would get benefited the most. K Nedunchelian, Editor-in-Chief, IJPP and Assistant Professor, Institute of Child Health Hospital for Children, Chennai 600 008,Tamil Nadu.
	Manual of Neonatology Vineet Bhandari New Delhi: Peepee Publishers 2008, Pages 674; Price Rs. 450/-
Though a number of books and manual exists on neonatology, this book in a manual form stands out as it focuses only on the common neonatal conditions, written in an easy to read format in 29 chapters. The author has thus tried to include all possible conditions in a systemwise format. The radiological images in various sections and the flow diagrams in the cardiology section add to it. Few chapters are written concisely (Nutrition in the neonate; fluids and electrolytes in the newborn; Hypoglycemia in the neonate; Anemia in neonate; PPHN), while others need considerable inputs for making a uniform pleasurable reading. The salient points are well covered in most of the chapters. Addition of few more tables and flow diagrams would have been more useful in this regard. Another highlight of this book is an exhaustive account on neonatal procedures, which covers almost a third of the book. Publication of this section as a separate hand book would have debulked the book and given more space to addition of some more neonatal issues like guidelines to maintain asepsis, CPAP, breastfeeding issues, and management of IUGR babies which are important to the Indian subcontinent. Overall, a good attempt to bring another manual that will serve as a useful handy resource book for practicing pediatricians and residents. Ashok Deorari, Division of Neonatology, Department of Pediatrics, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi 110 029, India.