Rapid review of medicine in old age / Michael Vassallo, Stephen Allen. — London : Manson Publishing, c2008. – (63.8532/V337)

Contents

    Preface
    
     This book has two main purposes; formative case analysis and self-assessment of medicine in old age. It presents clinicians with a series of clinical cases that form the basis for discussion of the investigation and management of the patients. It also provides the trainee， or established doctor， with a medium to help prepare for post-graduate examinations and clinical practice. We believe it will be particularly useful to candidates taking the MRCP Part 2 written examination， the DGM， and formal knowledge tests for specialist registrars in Geriatric Medicine， General Medicine and Acute Medicine.
     We have not attempted to write a comprehensive textbook of geriatric medicine as the field is vast and overlaps with many other specialties. Instead， we have chosen cases that cover the main modes of presentation of acute illness in old age， such as falls， confusion， incontinence， weight loss and immobility， with examples from all the major systems. These illustrate the complexity of diagnosis and treatment of medical illness in frail older people， and the need to think widely and laterally when caring for such patients.
     All the cases are based on real people who have been under the care of the authors， and almost all the photo- graphs are from the original patients.
     The questions are mostly in best-of-five format， to reflect the current style of multiple choice questions used in examination， though we have included some open questions when that is more appropriate for the topic and as a basis for the tutorial sections. We have expanded many of the clinical stems to a size that is rather larger than that encountered in examinations. This provides a platform for a sequence of questions in the longer cases that improves the educational function of the book and more rigorously tests the reader's deductive thinking. We have phrased some questions in the negative. This reflects the reality of decision making in clinical practice， so we believe it is justified. Some topics and themes appear more than once; again， this is deliberate and serves to reinforce certain important messages.
     We have used the past tense for all the clinical stems， though we have made free with the present and past tenses in the follow up sections according to the need for clarity， emphasis and a natural style. We hope the past tense purists among the readership will forgive us for taking that liberty.