Essential Neonatal Medicine, 4th Ed., Malcolm I. Levene, David I. Tudehope and Sunil Sinha (ISBN: 978-1-4051-5710-0), copyright 2008

This book is “intended for trainee clinicians (doctors, nurses and midwives).” Chapter references are limited by the authors to the most essential 4-10. They aimed for a “short book on neonatal medicine which gives more background discussion and is less dogmatic than other works currently available...to give more basic information concerning physiology, development and a perspective to treatment which will be of value equally to neonatal nurses, paediatricians in training, medical students and midwives.” They’ve focused on common problems and their management. When rare medical and surgical conditions have been included, it is because ”their early diagnosis and treatment may be lifesaving.”

The book is written in narrative form, rather than outline, which makes for more interesting reading. The topics are separated by disorders (respiratory, congenital anomalies, cardiovascular...).

I read Chapter 4 examination of the newborn thoroughly and checked that all internal references were correct. I found one internal reference that was incorrect, and one website whose IP address was not correct. In general, however, the references were correct.

I also looked up Tetralogy of Fallot. Here is the complete discussion, which assumes that you have some knowledge of the topic. “Affecting 1 in 3500 births, this does not classically present with cyanosis in the newborn period, but a murmur may be detected early and on investigation some infants are found to be cyanosed. Rarely there may be severe obstruction to pulmonary blood flow necessitating PGE1 infusion and systemic to pulmonary shunt or complete repair. After the age of 1 month it is the commonest cause of cyanotic heart disease. Treatment is initially with a Blalock-Taussig or central shunt, and later total repair. The long-term prognosis following successful surgery is excellent.”

This book is not a primary reference to be carried with you and used to develop a treatment plan, but it is a great secondary source of information.

Edited April 26, 201016 yr by 99nicu.org

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I came across this book first during my Pediatric Residency. InitiallyI used to think that it is just a shrunk form of the Big Nelson (aka Textbook of Pediatrics - Nelson). Later when I started reading this Mini Nelson ( aka Essentials ) , I discovered that it is completely a different book with a different approach. It has a way of teaching you many fundamentals of pediatrics which its bigger version neglects. Most of the topics are concise and not exhaustive like the Textbook but still each chapter is informative. Also it makes an interesting reading and has a good writing style.

Though not a replacement for the Textbook, it is still a recommended read for any aspiring pediatrician to strengthen the "Essentials" of Pediatrics.