Essentials of Pain Medicine

Abstract

Essentials of Pain Medicine ( 3rd ed ) H. T. Benzon, S. N. Raja, S. M. Fishman, S. Liu & S. P. Cohen Elsevier , 2011 , ISBN 978-1437722420 , 688 pp. , Price £63.99 The authors of this hardback book, all leading US-based specialists, have taken the opportunity to target a growing market, including trainees in pain medicine, recertifying pain doctors and established pain practitioners. The book comes with an online accompaniment, allowing the reader to consult the text via the internet, thus allowing the book’s text and illustrations to be accessed flexibility. The online version is easy to navigate through using the sidebar application. Illustrations can be enlarged and all references are available with one mouse click. The book is divided into nine sections. The first three – neurophysiology, clinical examination and pharmacology – constitute an up-to-date and necessary basic science introduction. Within the first section there is a chapter dedicated to the taxonomy of pain that establishes a vocabulary and explanation of everyday terminology used in the pain world. Sections four to six concentrate on therapeutic interventions, peri-operative pain management and chronic pain syndromes. As expected, the chronic pain section is extensive compared with the rest of the book. Most common chronic pain syndromes are covered well, with excellent illustrations, and appropriate procedures are discussed as part of the management strategy. In sections seven to nine there is an emphasis on interventional techniques including pulsed radiofrequency, spinal cord stimulation, intradiscal techniques and regional nerve blocks. Sandwiched between the last two is a chapter on cancer pain and end-of-life pain management with associated neurolytic and neurolysis procedures. The illustrations throughout the book are simple, effective and aid learning extremely well, ranging from simple line drawings to 3D reconstruction and cadaveric pictures. However, the images are in black and white and don’t have the same impact as if they were in colour. At the end of each chapter there is a ‘key points’ section, helping the reader to refocus on the key issues. I thought this area could have been presented in a more eye-catching format rather than the somewhat repetitive style of the chapter. The book is well balanced in terms of basic science and clinical applications, and all chapters have a narrative flow that is not laborious and can be used effectively as a quick source of information, e.g. for teaching or viva practice. Overall, this book sets out to provide a concise but complete overview of pain medicine without becoming too overwhelming for the reader. In my opinion, it would be an excellent textbook to read before or at the start of pain training and also as a resource to help manage a wide variety of pain syndromes in everyday practice.