Field of medicine: General medicine.

Format: Hardcover book.

Audience: Practicing physicians and residents.

Purpose: The editors state that their goal is "to bring together in concise, definitive articles the best current information on medical diagnosis to assist the physician in arriving at the correct diagnosis as efficiently as possible."

Content: This ninth edition includes 293 monographs that describe medical problems and diagnostic approaches. The first section covers common clinical problems, such as fever, coma, and syncope. The remaining chapters are disease specific, describing basic pathophysiology and diagnostic approaches in detail. The 464 contributors range from internationally known department chairpersons to residents and fellows.

Highlights: A remarkable range of diseases is included. Many chapters describe diagnostic "pitfalls," areas in which new approaches have superseded traditional approaches.

Limitations: Despite this book's mammoth size, it is far too small to permit comprehensive discussions of the pathophysiology of so many diseases. Moreover, controversies in understanding illnesses and in diagnostic methods are given short shrift. However, the editors have not attempted to replace standard textbooks, nor have they set out to provide a comprehensive reference book that will satisfy the expert. Their goal was to provide a tool to help physicians efficiently diagnose many problems and diseases.

Context: Conn's Current Diagnosis has been the standard of broad-based diagnostic texts since it was first published in 1966. The book's only serious competition consists of computer-based comprehensive texts that permit the user to perform expansive, focused, and complicated searches. Such competition is still in its infancy, but the flexibility and power of computer-assisted information tools will surely provide a future challenge to large textbooks such as this one.

Reviewer: James J. Foody, MD, University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine, Chicago, Illinois.

Commentary: The generalist sees a broad range of problems and diseases every day; the specialist sees a more limited number and variety of problems. Yet both will encounter problems that they seldom or irregularly see. In addition, cardiologists, general surgeons, and family physicians will probably all have to deal with problem patients at some time. This book contains chapters on problem patients, personality disorders, and major affective disorders, all of which may prove useful in understanding how to approach diagnosis. Few U.S. physicians regularly encounter tetanus, for example, yet everyone with tetanus is seen by a physician somewhere. In such circumstances, having a concise resource broad enough to include a discussion on the problem at hand is crucial to an efficient response. Conn's Current Diagnosis is that resource.