Emergency Ultrasound Made Easy

Dr Paul Atkinson is an Emergency Physician with a wide experience in the practice of Emergency Medicine and Trauma Care. His primary degrees are first class honours in physiology, and honours in medicine from The Queen's University of Belfast. His postgraduate training and higher specialist training in emergency medicine was completed in Belfast, Northern Ireland; Cambridge, England and Sydney, Australia. He is currently Director of Emergency Medicine Research at Saint John Regional Hospital in New Brunswick, Canada, and Associate Professor with the Faculty of Medicine, Dalhousie University. He is involved in the development of the specialty of emergency medicine at local, regional and national levels. His areas of special interest include physiological scoring in trauma and critical illness, emergency paediatrics, clinical decision rules, the use of acute assessment tools including chest pain management pathways, and emergency ultrasound in trauma and shock.

This is a small, soft-backed, pocket book of just over 160 pages. Its aim is to provide a quick entry into the subject and act as an aide memoir for those faced with assessing a patient with ultrasound in an acute situation. Simple drawings are used to show probe position and example ultrasound images are provided. These images are taken from the type of relatively cheap portable ultrasound machine that is likely to be present in the emergency department. There are useful tips and handy hints on how to answer the binary question posed. Importantly, the book tells the reader what ultrasound can and cannot tell you in each scenario, and goes onto say what to do next. The book has well-structured headings enabling easy reference. It has a friendly style and is not in the least intimidating. I would encourage radiologists to make sure that those using ultrasound in this way are taught appropriate skills and know their limitations. This book is a good place for them to start. I like the final quote given, "a fool with a stethoscope will still be a fool with an ultrasound". I strongly urge each practitioner to buy a copy. Clinical Radiology JournalThis is a very succinct, well-illustrated book, which is sharply clinically focused, and would be of considerable use to those who work in the emergency department and have an interest in adding diagnostic ultrasound to their clinical skills.Medical Journal of New ZealandThis text provides an excellent introduction to most of the emergency applications for bedside ultrasound. It provides a practical, focused look at the role of bedside ultrasound for non-radiologists. Anaesthesia and Intensive Care In spite of the disappearance of white coats from British hospital wards, there remains a role for the pocket-sized book. This one achieves what the title claims. Having assumed that the reader has no practical experience of ultrasound scanning, it provides a concise and clear approach to emergency ultrasonography for the non-radiologist. The authors stress its roles and limitations, principally by stating in a didactic manner the questions it can or cannot answer. Although a multiauthor book, the editors have set out each chapter in the same way, supported by excellent drawings and ultrasound images. For the enthusiastic accident and emergency doctor or surgical resident with access to an appropriate ultrasound machine, this book should be invaluable.British Journal of Surgery