Hospice Palliative Care Book Reviews &
The Palliative Care Book of the Month
Dr. Woodruff, MD
(Australia)
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Book of the Month
TEXTBOOK OF PALLIATIVE MEDICINE
Eduardo Bruera, Irene Higginson, Carla Ripamonti and Charles von Gunten (Eds)
Hodder Arnold, 2007
1095 pp
ISBN 978-0-340-81018-7
RRP £125.00, $US225.00.
This is the second comprehensive textbook of palliative medicine. Written by more than 170 contributors from around the world, it is an attempt to reflect the growth of palliative medicine from a global perspective.
The book is divided into 16 Parts. The first is about the development of palliative medicine in various countries and regions around the world and is an invaluable record of the remarkable things that have happened in the last 40 years. There are then sections on Bioethics, Education,
Research and audit, and Organisation and governance. Following this, there are sections on Assessment, Pain, Gastrointestinal symptoms, Fatigue, Respiratory symptoms, and Neuropsychiatric syndromes. There is a separate section on emergencies in palliative medicine and a section of specific
conditions and situations including HIV, neurodegenerative diseases, end-stage cardiac failure, chronic lung disease and infectious diseases. The final section deals with Interdisciplinary issues.
What sets this book aside is its international flavour, about how palliative care can be made to work in different geographical and cultural settings. It is difficult to do justice to the breadth of the scope of this book. The chapters on education
and research (11 in all) are very good.
I was a little less satisfied with the clinical chapters. There is a predictable variation in quality from chapter to chapter, as is to be expected in a multi-authored text. But if this is to be ‘a very useful resource for physicians, nurses and other health care professionals..’,
if it is to be the palliative care reference, then it must be comprehensive. The chapter on opioid analgesics doesn’t mention buprenorphine, codeine, hydromorphone or tramadol. There is no chapter on non-opioid analgesics. The management of thrombosis, a relatively common
complication of advanced and terminal cancer, is not discussed. There were other minor organisational annoyances. For example, there was a good discussion of osteonecrosis of the jaw in the mouth care chapter, but no mention of it in the sections on bisphosphonate drugs in the adjuvant
analgesics and bone pain chapters. While some chapters are excellent, in others I longed for the presentation of more clinical information, not just references to the literature. More tables and diagrams (in some chapters) would be an added stimulus to the reader.
This book invites comparison with the Oxford Textbook of Palliative Medicine 3e, although I wondered whether it was fair to compare a third edition with a first. The new book presents a much more global view of the history and practice of palliative medicine, although
the clinical chapters in OTPM provide a more even presentation. They are both big books, the new one slightly heavier, and are similarly priced.
The new Textbook of Palliative Medicine presents a massive amount of information for which the editors should be heartily congratulated. I had no hesitation in choosing it as my Palliative Care Book of the Month, although that doesn’t mean that there isn’t
room for improvement in the second edition.
Roger Woodruff
Director of Palliative Care, Austin Health, Melbourne, Australia
May 2007
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Book Reviews
PALLIATIVE AND END-OF-LIFE CARE
Clinical Practice Guidelines 2nd edition
Kim Kuebler, Debra Heidrich and Peg Esper (Eds)
Saunders, Elsevier 2007
569 pp
ISBN 978-1-4160-3079-9
RRP $US 51.95 £ 35.99
This is the expanded and updated second edition of the book that came out in 2002 and was reviewed here. It includes 8 new chapters: Advanced care planning, Ethical issues, Spiritual care, Pharmacology, Sleep, Nutrition, Bowel Obstruction, and Lymphodema. The chapter on drug pharmacology
is particularly welcome. Taken overall, the guidelines are impressive, as they were in 2002. The coverage is reasonable given the amount of territory the book attempts to cover and the structured format of the Guidelines appeals.
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AGING, SPIRITUALITY AND PALLIATIVE CARE
Elizabeth MacKinlay (ed.)
Haworth Press, 2006
259 pp
ISBN 978-0-7890-3342-0
RRP $US 27.95 £15
How, when, where and by whom should spiritual concerns be addressed in the palliative care setting? The short answer is that no one size fits all and, as with many things in palliative care, it has to be tailored to the individual patient. This book is a collection of sixteen presentations
by leading authorities at the Third International Conference on Aging and Spirituality held in Adelaide, Australia in 2004. Doctors, nurses, social workers and clergy share their views on how we can best address and meet the diverse spiritual needs of the patients who cross
our path.
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ALWAYS TOO SOON
Voices of support for those who have lost both parents
Allison Gilbert
Seal Press, 2006
273 pp
ISBN 978-1-58005-176-7
RRP $US 14.95 £ 8.99
Journalist Allison Gilbert had lost both her parents by the time she was 31 years old. At the time, she felt the supports available to help her were inadequate. This book is her attempt to plug that gap. It is a collection of 20 interviews with well-known or public figures, describing
their personal journeys through loss. The stories are told in the first-person and are very real and I think would provide comfort and hope to those who grieve a parent or parents.
Roger Woodruff
Director of Palliative Care, Austin Health, Melbourne, Australia
May 2007
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Procedure to submit a book for review:
If you would like to have a book reviewed and included in the IAHPC bookshop, please send a copy to the IAHPC Bookshop Editor:
Dr. Roger Woodruff
IAHPC Bookshop Editor
210 Burgundy Street Suite 9
Heildberg, Victoria 3084
AUSTRALIA
Note: Books sent to our bookshop editor become property of IAHPC and the review may take some time to appear in the Newsletter. Only books related to palliative care and with an ISBN number will be reviewed. Others will be discarded. Thank You!
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