This 384 paged, pocket sized, multiauthor book from Exeter contains a huge amount of information, edited by a nephrologist and an anaesthetist.

The layout is very clear and it portrays current mainstream thoughts and practice over the very wide canvas of perioperative care and “medical” complications.

As the majority of perioperative surgical care in the UK is carried out by surgeons and not by nephrologists or anaesthetists, I think that a second edition would be significantly improved by the addition of a consultant surgeon to the editorial duo, and a surgical specialist registrar to the list of major contributors.

The first section (general issues) is notably less good than the, larger, second section (specific diseases and complications), although there are strong sections on palliative care and team work.

I see this book as a useful vade mecum for surgical preregistration house officers and senior house officers (SHOs). It really does make easy reading in short bursts: the sort of book an SHO could dip into while waiting for cases to arrive in theatre. It should make an invaluable, easy, clear revision text, both for the applied physiology viva of the MRCS and then, later, for the critical care section of the Intercollegiate FRCS examination.

I have read it from cover to cover, and I recommend that you should do the same.