Emergency CT Scans of the Head: a Practical Atlas

Media Review

CJEM 1999;1(2):135

Emergency CT Scans of the Head: a Practical Atlas
A. Adam Cwinn, Stephen Z. Grahovac. Mosby­Year Book, Inc., 1998. 195 pp. $117.

Emergency CT Scans of the Head: a Practical Atlas is the best book available to emergency physicians on this subject. Cwinn and Grahovac have written a comprehensive, systematic, and user-friendly approach to head CT interpretation, which provides excellent, detailed discussions of a wide range of head CT scans. Normal CTs, typical pathology and normal variants are discussed in detail.

The first chapter deserves special mention. By providing an historical background and reviewing the physics and anatomy behind scan analysis, it provides a solid foundation for understanding the images we interpret every day. The chapter ends with a scan interpretation checklist. The remaining chapters cover specific topics including trauma, stroke, subarachnoid hemorrhage and aneurysms, non-traumatic hemorrhage and vascular malformations, intracranial neoplasms, intracranial infections, miscellaneous conditions and normal variations.

Each chapter begins with a topical discussion and ends with relevant CT reproductions. Each figure has a succinct description explaining the pertinent diagnostic findings. The book is practical and well indexed, enabling "on-duty" physicians to compare and contrast the book's images with "clinical" CT scans under review.

Emergency CT Scans of the Head is compact and easy to read. Emergency physicians working without immediate radiology back up will find it an invaluable reference when agonizing over an equivocal head CT. This book is a "MUST BUY" for every ED academic coordinator.

Cindy-Ann Lucky, MD St. Paul's Hospital Vancouver, BC calucky@interchange.ubc.ca

The book can be ordered directly from Mosby­Year Book, or ordered through http://www.medbookstore.com/.

Editor's note: Homer, Virgil, Shakespeare and Dostoevsky: All have made immeasurable contributions to our literature. Now Cwinn and Grahovac have made the biggest contribution yet. This book is the most useful radiology reference available for the ED. Buy it! [G.I.]