Essential Anesthesia is a concise, accessible introduction to anesthetic practice. Now in its second edition, it provides a thorough overview of the science and practice of anesthesia. Part I describes the evaluation of the patient, the different approaches to anesthesia, and the post-operative care of the patient in pain. Part II introduces the essentials of physiology and pharmacology and their role in understanding the principles of anesthesia. The final part presents a step-by-step description of 14 clinical cases. These clinical vignettes give a very real introduction to the practicalities of anesthesia and will give the non-anesthetist physician an idea of how to prepare a patient for a surgical procedure. All chapters have been expanded and updated and an entirely new chapter on safety in healthcare has been added. This is the perfect introductory text for medical students, junior doctors and all operating theatre and critical care staff.

Systolic time intervals (STI), known for a long time, were revived in the early 1960s by Arnold Weissler. The first important papers came from him; they eval- uated STI measurements in larger populations, established norms, and compared STI measurements with other invasive methods. Since then, several hundred ex- cellent papers have appeared using and evaluating STI measurements for myo- cardial function studies. These have appeared in prominent cardiologic journals throughout the world as well as in the anesthesiologic and pediatric medical literature. When consent of subjects to medical experimentation became a prominent and necessary issue, the noninvasiveness of investigative methods in medicine, wher- ever possible, resolved the issue. Noninvasive measurements of STI proved to be an excellent monitoring parameter of cardiac function during anesthesia, and anesthesiologists wished to learn more from the long experience of cardiologists with STI. An organizing committee of List, Gravenstein, and Spodick was accordingly formed. Invitations were issued for an international conference on STI. With more than 40 clinical researchers using STI, it was, of course, difficult to hear them all within two days. A generous sponsor, the AVL Company, Graz-Schaffhausen, made possible the International Conference at Graz. Publication of the proceedings of the Confer- ence became feasible with help from Boehringer-Mannheim.

In recent years capnography has gained a foothold in the medical field and is fast becoming a standard of care in anaesthesiology and critical care medicine. In addition, newer applications have emerged which have expanded the utility of capnographs in a number of medical disciplines. This new edition of the definitive text on capnography reviews every aspect of this valuable diagnostic technique. An introductory section summarises the basic physiology of carbon dioxide generation and transport in the body. A technical section describes how the instruments work, and a comprehensive clinical section reviews the use of capnography to diagnose a wide range of clinical disorders. Edited by the world experts in the technique, and with over 40 specialist contributors, Capnography, second edition, is the most comprehensive review available on the application of capnography in health care.