Tarascon Internal Medicine & Critical Care Pocketbook

High yield for all aspects of ICU life... as well as the medicine wards. It is very well written, with topics covered surprisingly well for its size. I basically ended up carrying this, its cousin text, the pharmacopoeia, The Sanford Guide to Antimicrobial Therapy, and The Consult Manual of Internal Medicine in my pockets. Thats all you need.

This is an excellent white coat pocketbook for any student, intern, or resident in medicine or undergoing a required medicine rotation. I found it an invaluable light-weight, heavy in useful and important factoids. It never left my pocket during my rotations in medical and cardiac critical care.

I am a critical care RN and have been in the business for over 21 years; there are very few critical care texts I haven't seen, and many of them I own. A colleague shared his Tarascon Int. Med. and Crit. Care Pocketbook with me, and I was hooked. In one small volume, easily fitting in a lab coat pocket are all the fun factoids you need on rounds , at the bedside, or when on the phone with the on-call or attending. It touches on all major pathologies you are likely to encounter, and outlines their treatments according to national standards and accepted protocols. For me, it has replaced carrying many of the laminated fact cards I had jammed in my pockets.

In contrast to its ubiquitous cousin, the Tarascon Pharmacopoeia, this book is infrequently used and is a relative unknown amongst my colleagues. That's a shame, because this book provides a wealth of useful, easily accessible information. Despite the fact that I carry other databases including my own notes or "peripheral brain" on my handheld, this book provides me with answers I don't find anywhere else.The information is broad and varied including the bread and butter differential diagnoses of mixed acid-base disorders, to ventilator weaning parameters, PIOPED data, rheumatologic autoantibodies and in what diseases a given antibody is prominent as well as the criteria for fluid analysis of any type (e.g. joint, CSF, pleural, ascites, etc.), EKG criteria et cetera ad naseum. As a quick, information packed reference, it's easily worth the small amount it costs.

I bought the Tarascon Internal Medicine & Critical Care Pocketbook at the advice of my Residency Program Director. It really is an amazing book. The tables are very easy to interpet, and there is a wealth of information about all the common diseases seen in a hospital setting. As an Internal Medicine resident, I would give it 2 thumbs up. An essential pocket book to carry around.