Obstetrics and Gynaecology
Authors: J Christopher Carey and William F Rayburn
The other day, an antenatal patient who was about 9 weeks pregnant asked me about nuchal fold scanning and its role in the detection of Down’s syndrome. I had to confess to her that this technique was not available 20 years ago when I was an obstetric SHO in 1982. So I promised to do some research and get back to her.
Our midwife wasn’t around but I remembered that I had been given this pocket size book to review so I flicked eagerly through the index but was disappointed to find that there was no mention of the technique whatever. This was confirmed when I read the section on Down’s syndrome screening and is perhaps a mite surprising, considering that the 4th edition was published recently. No matter, I now had two options, searching with Google or tracking down our midwife. I chose the former and was soon rewarded with a number of relevant hits. My midwife’s ears must have been burning because she turned up out of the blue and was able to tell me about the local arrangements for the test.
Anyway, back to this pocket book which covers some 429 pages but which could be slipped into your white coat or desk drawer with ease. It is divided into 20 chapters and it is easy to find what you’re looking for by either browsing through the contents or the index. What follows, is an eminently readable and well-referenced distillation of Obstetrics and Gynaecology as it is practised in the USA, and would be more suited, it has to be said, to the hospital doctor than the GP. That is not to say that there isn’t plenty to interest the UK GP - far from it.
There are, of course, a number of differences in standard practice between the two countries but I would venture that this is one of the interesting aspects of a book such as this and you should not be put off reading it. There is however the usual mild annoyance of mg/100ml instead of mmol/litre and the rather strange discovery that metronidazole in the US comes as 250mg and 500mg tablets compared with 200mg and 400mg tablets over here! Some of the advice given is frankly bizarre e.g. "We are often surprised that many patients have not chosen a baby’s name before birth. This can be an anxiety provoking situation and we encourage selection of a name before birth." Or how about "Parents may wish to discuss baby furniture e.g. a crib or dresser with a doctor or nurse".
All in all though, a fact-filled and surprisingly comprehensive book if you can forgive its little idiosyncrasies.
| Publisher: | Lippincott Williams
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| 4th Edition (2001)
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| ISBN: 0-7817-2855-X
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| Reviewer: | Dr Jeremy M Sager
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