Book Review

This pocket-sized package certainly packs a mighty punch. Relating to one of the primary areas of paramedic practice, paramedics would do well to devote some time to reading this one. Such an important subject area deserves comprehensive and precise consideration and as you would expect given the expertise of the authors, this little beauty has it all.

The basics are all covered, from initial assessment and stressing the importance of first line clinical care, to the more advanced interventions such as thrombolytic therapy and cardiac arrests.

Detailed algorhythms are clearly illustrated without over-complicating a particular pathway and clinicians responsible for adhering to them should find little difficulty here.

The title of the book is a little mis-leading, as the content covers a broad spectrum of cardiac-related conditions and not restricted to heart attacks. Whilst a number of arrhythmias are illustrated, the reader should not expect to find a complete compilation of heart rhythms as this is not the book's remit—other texts offer this without the underpinning theory contained in this book.