Introduction to Anesthesia: The Principles of Safe Practice

The preface to the sixth edition begins with an apology for threatening to end this series with the fifth edition. This reviewer is pleased that Drs Eckenhoff and Vandam reconsidered. A new section on Education in Anesthesia addresses what the medical student, resident, and nurse anesthetist may expect from this text and describes briefly such areas as testing procedures and teaching techniques. The years between the fifth and sixth edition provided little new to say about preanesthetic consultation, choice of anesthetic techniques, preanesthetic medication, patient transport and preparation, anesthetic equipment, the fundamentals of inhalational and intravenous (IV) anesthetics, and the techniques for their administration. The same may be said for information concerning conduction anesthesia, fluids, electrolytes, and blood component therapy. These and other fundamental concepts were well covered in the fifth edition, and the authors rightly decided that there is little wisdom in change for the sake of change. Appropriate