Description

Preface

This book provides a concise, illustrated overview of neonatal medicine. We have aimed to cover the breadth of neonatology in under 100 double pages, with major topics confined to one or two double pages. This has been a challenging exercise as it would have been easier to write a longer book, but this format has forced us to identify the most important points and omit unnecessary details. The book has been designed to make learning easier and more enjoyable. Modern education emphasizes visual impact and this is reflected in this book. The layout, photographs and illustrations have been chosen to assist learning and make the book attractive and interesting. In addition, there are specific aids to learning, with boxes to highlight key points and questions and answers.

The book covers the preterm infant and the wide range of common or important neonatal clinical conditions and their management. It also puts neonatology into context, with sections on its history, epidemiology, perinatal medicine and a global over- view, together with the care of the normal newborn and how to recognize the sick infant. The challenging topics of ethical issues, research, quality assurance, evidence- based medicine, when a baby dies, autopsy and neonatal outcome are also considered. Practical procedures are described, including neonatal resuscitation and neonatal transport; a description of cranial ultrasound and echocardiography have been included to inform the practicing clinician about them even if they do not perform these procedures themselves.

The book is written for pediatric interns and residents, medical students, neonatal nurse practitioners, neonatal nurses, therapists and midwives who care for newborn babies either on a neonatal unit or with their mothers in the normal newborn nursery (postnatal wards). Whilst the book describes the salient features of intensive care, such as stabilizing the sick infant and respiratory support, it is not a manual of neonatal intensive care, of which there are many.

The book has been a collaborative project between editors and contributors from both North America and the UK. Where practices differ between the two sides of the Atlantic this has been acknowledged and described. This collaboration has been highly educational and hugely enjoyable for the editors and contributors as well as improving the book by forcing us to concentrate on the principles of practice instead of the details.

This new edition has allowed us to update and revise the book. We would like to thank the many doctors, nurses and therapists whose positive comments about the book encouraged us to produce this 2nd edition. We would also like to thank our families for allowing us to spend so much time over many years on this project.

Tom Lissauer and Avroy A. Fanaroff (Editors)

Content

• Preface
• Contributors
• Part 1 Introduction
• Part 2 Perinatal medicine
• Part 3 Delivery
• Part 4 The normal newborn infant
• Part 5 The sick newborn infant
• Part 6 The preterm infant
• Part 7 Neonatal problems
• Part 8 Aspects of neonatal intensive care
• Part 9 Global
• Part 10 Transport
• Part 11 Practical procedures
• Index