Abujudeh HH, ed. Emergency Radiology Cases. Cases in Radiology. Oxford University Press; 2014; 384 pp; 596 illustrations; $79.95.
Containing 164 cases and over 600 images, this book offers a review in the varied and important cases seen in the emergency setting. Specifically, there are 59 neuroradiology cases, of which 28 are trauma and 26 are non-trauma and pediatric cases. All cases are well-illustrated, with high quality images. With the adult neuro cases, they are broken down into brain/face and head, neck, and spine. Examples of covered cases include epidural hematoma, diffuse axonal injury, flexion teardrop injury, meningitis, PRES, ADEM, and diskitis osteomyelitis. The other 105 non-neuro cases are also broken down into trauma and non-trauma cases, and subdivided by sections into chest, abdomen, extremities, and pediatrics. These non-neuro cases provide a quick review of general radiology findings. Each case has a succinct, bordering on superficial, and discussion.
Unfortunately, there are more than a few mistakes throughout the book. These include organizational mistakes such as placing some spinal injuries under the brain/face rather than spine section. Additionally, as this book had 43 contributing authors, the writing and format varies substantially from case to case. Some case discussions will describe the findings seen in the presented images, often with arrows to direct the reader to the findings, while other case discussions will give a general overview of the typical findings of that diagnosis in all modalities, not just the images shown. Some of the cases, unfortunately, have arrows on the first set of images shown, making it impossible to take the case as an unknown. Additionally, some case discussions are written in bulletpoints while others are written in full sentences. While this last objection may seem petty, the non-standard format made quick perusal more difficult for this reader.
Factual mistakes are, unfortunately, present, though infrequently. For example, the discussion of a non,accidental trauma case refers the reader to an arrow pointing at a skull fracture; however, this arrow is in the region of the posterior horn of the lateral ventricle. This clear mistake is easy to forgive, as this arrow is as obviously misplaced as the actual finding. However, the next line refers the reader to an arrow pointing to a metaphyseal corner fracture, but the arrow in the image instead points to the diaphysis several centimeters above this subtle fracture. This mistake is misleading for anyone who does not already know what a corner fracture is.
Overall, this book is well-illustrated and covers a wide variety of cases. However, stylistic and factual errors are present. For a neuroradiologist in practice or a neuroradiology trainee, the Neuroradiology Cases book in this same series is much preferred, as the format is much more standardized, the discussion is more in-depth, and the cases are better. This book might be of interest to a radiology resident to peruse before starting their ER rotation and might also be educational for our emergency medicine clinical colleagues. However, the Emergency Radiology Case Review Series and Emergency Radiology Case Studies are better books, in this reviewer’s opinion.
