This book has a twofold purpose, first to provide information for beginners about the pitalls and hazards of anaesthesia and second to help the occasional anaesthetist in remote areas when confronted with requests to anaesthetise for unfamiliar surgical operations. The book is not intended to replace any standard text for anaesthetic examinations, and indeed, its lack of information about basic sciences makes it unsuitable for such a purpose. The contents can be regarded as a distillate of 45 years of practical anaesthesia, in both primitive and sophisticated conditions, from the ether and chloroform rag and bottle days onwards through cyclopropane, trichloroethylene, relaxants and lytic cocktails to halothane. The only operation mentioned of which I have no practical experience is thymectomy and removal of an argentaffinoma. I have never knowingly encountered malignant hyperpyrexia, but had one experience of what we called ether convulsions with hyperpyrexia, which could have been, and probably was, the same thing. An attempt has been made to arrange the book in four logical sections. It begins with the hazards of preparation-assessment of risks to patients particularly, but Part I also includes chapters on medicolegal and occupational hazards to anaesthetists.

I Pre-operative Assessment, Medicolegal and Occupational Hazards

1 General Considerations
2 Cardiovascular Disease
3 Respiratory Disease
4 Haematological Disorders
5 Muscular Disorders
6 Other Intercurrent Diseases
7 Adverse Reactions Due to Drug Therapy
8 Medicolegal Hazards
9 Occupational Hazards
II Considerations Relevant to All Procedures
10 Preparation and Use of Anaesthetic Apparatus
11 Fires, Explosions and Electric Shock
12 Induction
13 Muscle Relaxants
14 Endotracheal Intubation
15 Positioning Patients for Surgery
16 Maintenance of Anaesthesia
17 Local Analgesia
18 Cardiovascular Hazards
19 Controlled Hypotension
20 Intravenous Therapy and Central Venous Pressure Lines
21 Blood Transfusion
22 Recovery
23 Cardiac Arrest
24 Intensive Care
III Emergency Surgery
25 Stomach Content
26 Shock: Vascular Responses to Injury, Haemorrhage and Infection
27 Disturbances of Fluid, Electrolytes and Acid-Base Balance
28 Common Emergency Procedures
IV Individual Types of Procedure
29 Abdominal Surgery
30 Gynaecological Surgery
31 Operative Obstetrics
32 Urological Surgery
33 Orthopaedic Surgery
34 Neurosurgery
35 Ear, Nose and Throat and Maxillofacial Surgery
36 Paediatric Surgery
37 Dental Surgery
38 Ophthalmic Surgery
39 Burns
40 Thoracic Surgery
41 Vascular Surgery
42 Miscellaneous Surgical Procedures
43 Endoscopy
44 Radiological Departments
45 Cardiac Departments
46 Day Surgery
Selective Bibliography.