BOOK REVIEWS 157

the bone marrow nomogram, paediatric values, clinical management of patients. There are very and other physiological variations would be few textbooks in hematology that have achieved helpful. that.

in summary then there is much that is useful and praiseworthy in this new two volume hematol- ogy textbook. Unfortunately I think it falls be- tween two stools; it is not a complete reference book for both laboratory practice and for the

MORAG CHISHOLM Department of Haematology,

Southampton General Hospital, U. K.

HEMATOLOGIC AND ONCOLOGIC EMERGENCIES. William Bell (Ed.). Churchill Livingstone, New York. 1993. No. of pages: 256. Price: E57.50.

The title of this book is somewhat misleading as only one chapter is devoted to oncologic emergen- cies and thus the discussion of these problems is rather brief. However, for the non specialist in hematology this book provides a generally good, if not always critical overview of the current understanding of acute hematologic problems with chapters on management of acute episodes of bleeding, hemolytic disorders, DIC, ITP, TTP/ HUS, acute complications of sickle cell anemia, blood component therapy, massive transfusion and plasmapheresis.

Each chapter is written by separate authors but they follow a similar format summarizing current knowledge about the aetiology and pathogenesis of each condition and then describing the approach to investigation and management of the problem. Whilst attempts are made to review treatment strategies where uncertainty exists as to the most appropriate therapy for a particular condition, many of the authors have also given a

personal guide to the way in which they would manage these problems. One of the problems which arises with this format is that there is unnecessarily repetitive discussion of many issues.

The chapters on blood component therapy and massive transfusion are very well written and cover particularly well the complications of trans- fusion therapy which are often missing from stan- dard textbooks. The chapter on plasmapheresis is very comprehensive in its coverage of the poten- tial uses for this therapy, but it is not very discriminatory with respect to the efficacy in many of the conditions discussed. The section on care of acute complications of sickle cell disease gives very sensible and practical advice on the manage- ment of patients with these problems.

I think that this book could be a useful refer- ence for those physicians dealing with acute hema- tological problems in the emergency department and intensive care unit as well as those due to malignant disease.

PETER SIMMONDS CRC Wessex Medical Oncology Unit, Southampton General Hospital, U. K.

YEAR BOOK OF HEMATOLOGY 1992. Jerry L. Spivak et 01. (Eds). Mosby-Year Book Europe Ltd., tific flavour. London. 1993. Price: E52.00.

although the white cell chapter has a more scien-

I confess to having never read one of the Year

The 1993 Year Book of Hematology reviews 232 articles published almost exclusively in 1991. The articles are taken from 72 journals many of which would not be on the reading list of most hematolo- gists. The book is divided into six sections cover- ing red cells, white cells, platelets and coagulation factors, hematological malignancies and transfu- sion medicine. In addition, each year one topic is reviewed in more detail and this year’s subject is Post-transfusion Purpura. Each article is suc-

Book series before a i d was pleasantly surprised to find it both easy and enjoyable reading. To pro- duce such a high quality book within a year of the original articles being published is a considerable feat. However, I suspect that unless I need to know what happened in a particular year I shall still turn to one of the myriad of review articles and anno- tations offering a more complete overview of a particular subject than to a book providing a chronological snapshot of many different topics.

cinctly reviewed and this is followed by a comment on the significance of the work from a section editor. The majority of the articles are both of interest and relevance to practising hematologists

DAVID OSCIER Consultant Haemutologist,

The Royal Bournemouth Hospital, Castle Lane East, Bournemouth BH7 7 0 W, U.K.