Any recommendations on reference books?  Pocket editions?

Thank you.  God bless.

The ICU Book by Paul Marino is the gold standard ICU book for residents and medical students.

Recently released The Little ICU Book, more condensed.

Thanks.  Everybody brings up the Marino book.  However, in the Amazon customer reviews, people keep mentioning that some of the recommendations are “controversial.”

Can Marino be trusted?  Is he a loose cannon?

there’s a neurocritical care handbook by bhardwaj, though I think amazon won’t have it until March 2009.

Looks like it’s pushed back to April 2009.
But there’s an older edition (2004) - any word on whether there are substantial improvements/changes for the new edition?

NRA4LIFE - 21 December 2008 05:35 PM

Thanks.  Everybody brings up the Marino book.  However, in the Amazon customer reviews, people keep mentioning that some of the recommendations are “controversial.”

Can Marino be trusted?  Is he a loose cannon?

I have not found much in his material that is particularly controversial (or any more so than any other similar reference.) However, he does give his opinions on management issues and directions where he think more research needs to be done.  He also highlights traditional practices that he thinks are not supported by the evidence, which probably rattles a few cages.  This is probably what several reviewers are referring to.

I was curious to know how much exposure one can get in critical care medicine as a neurosurgical resident. Along with the surgical aspect of NS, I’m interested in pathophysiology and was wondering if you get your fair share of medical management thinking while taking care of trauma patients on the NSICU? Also, is it fair to say that NS deals with the sickest patients in the hospital? Thanks.

Slightly tangential, but anyway… Depends on the program. At some, like Brigham, Iowa, Columbia, you spend a solid year+ basically doing neurocritical care, managing the neuro-ICU, often (but not always) in partnership with a neuro-critical care team, while also carrying the service pager. At other programs, like Barrow, Stanford, Johns Hopkins, you may have one or more neurocritical care rotations, and must of course deal with neurocritical care issues on call, but you are not doing it exclusively for such a long time. Some programs like the fact that there is another neurocritical care team available to reduce the burden on neurosurgery residents, and to provide a resource for teaching; others advocate the value of “being” the neurocritical care team for the hospital yourself for an extended period. Overall, I think most programs provide pretty solid exposure to neurocritical care - some may do it in a more academic manner than others. Certainly, many neurosurgery patients are very sick, eg multi-trauma patients. However, one may argue that other patients (transplant, renal, etc), may be more complex.

transplant = the red stuff, then the yellow stuff, then the red stuff...... on the way back to the OR to pack

Is that neurocritical care handbook by Bhardwaj the “thin” neuro ICU book that a lot of people read?

I am an intern i want to know some more information about that. So can you please suggest me some book names from which i will get the information.

Frontera’s Decision Making in Neurocritical Care is an excellent book. It summarizes a lot of data in a small book.

So, is the Marino the book to get?  All of these are relatively inexpensive (as far as the world of nsgy related texts go) but I doubt I’ll be able or want to consult all of them during my neuro critical care rotation during intern year.  So if I had to choose only one to get, who would I spend my money on: Marino big or Marino lite or should I spring for the Frontera?  Advice appreciated.