Field of medicine: Gastroenterology.

Format: Softcover book.

Audience: Medical students, housestaff and trainees in gastroenterology, internists, and surgeons.

Purpose: To provide an in-depth but portable distillation of Yamada's Textbook of Gastroenterology. Particular emphasis is given to clinical aspects of gastrointestinal disease.

Content: Handbook of Gastroenterology follows the pattern of Textbook of Gastroenterology. The first 23 chapters present approaches to common gastrointestinal problems. The subsequent 50 chapters are devoted to specific categories of disease in the luminal gastrointestinal tract; the pancreaticobiliary system; and, in a useful departure from Textbook of Gastroenterology, the liver. The last 2 chapters are brief overviews of gastrointestinal endoscopy and imaging. Omitted are extensive sections on the basic mechanisms of normal and abnormal gastrointestinal function.

Highlights: The editors have ably reduced a 2500-page textbook to a (large) pocket manual. The final product consists of brief chapters that are dense with detail. The editors retained the exceptionally useful sections that provide an overview of common gastrointestinal problems. For newcomers, these sections serve as complete but concise introductions to complex complaints. Handbook of Gastroenterology also includes many useful tables.

Limitations: In an effort to condense a large text, the authors have reduced many discussions of differential diagnosis to lists of possible causes, and little information is given to help the novice select among them. Details of diagnostic evaluations and therapeutic options are better covered by other sources.

Related reading: This handbook is a richer source of information than other currently available, similar texts, such as Rigas's Clinical Gastroenterology: Companion Handbook (McGraw-Hill, 1995), Sachar's Pocket Guide to Gastroenterology (Williams & Wilkins, 1991), and Eastwood's Manual of Gastroenterology (Little, Brown, 1994). These books are more superficial and place greater emphasis on specifics of diagnosis and therapy. Handbook of Gastroenterology fills a void in the literature by serving as a comprehensive, accessible manual addressing clinical issues. The breadth of coverage of gastrointestinal disease and, to a lesser degree, hepatology is impressive.

Reviewer: David S. Weinberg, MD, Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.