This new edition of the Oxford Textbook of Geriatric Medicine substantially improves on its predecessor. It is the definitive international reference book on an emerging and inescapable medical discipline. There are three new international editors, and many new contributors. Whereas the first edition was designed to complement general textbooks of medicine, this edition stands alone as a reference on all aspects of the medical care of older persons. There is more detailed clinical information on every disease, and this information is given with reference to the changes that take place with ageing, and the resultant appropriate guidance on management and prevention in older patients. There are major sections on common problems in older patients such as incontinence, falls, and delirium. The coverage of ethics, outcomes, legal issues, long-term institutional care, communication, the provision of services, community-orientated support services, and the contribution of non-medical specialists to theory and practice in the care of older persons has been strengthened.

There are outstanding new sections on autonomic dysfunction, nutrition, back pain, measurement of quality of life, healthy life-expectancy, arterial disease, failure to thrive, sexuality, perioperative care, and special problems such as elder abuse and driving. There is also a section on useful information, containing various tests and scales. The sections on stroke, memory, cardiovascular disease, the respiratory system, nephrology and the genitourinary system, and neurology and psychiatry, have been substantially revised and updated. The need to balance, for the individual patient, the potential for benefit from modern technology, with risks of ill-effects is central to the practice of medicine in an ageing society. Fortunately, there is a growing literature with evidence for the appropriate management of older persons. The contributors give clear guidance on management, based on a review of the available evidence and emphasizing where these data are limited; and all chapters have been edited by clinicians actively involved in the day-to-day problems of older people. The Oxford Textbook of Geriatric Medicine has an international perspective, with specialist contributors from nine countries. It will provide every physician involved in the care of older patients with a comprehensive resource on all the clinical problems they are likely to encounter, as well as on related psychological, philosophical, and social issues.

John Grimley Evans' profile page

T. Franklin Williams' profile page

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John Grimley Evans, Professor of Clinical Geratology, Radcliffe Infirmary, Oxford. T. Franklin Williams, Professor of Medicine Emeritus, University of Rochester, NY, formerly Director, National Institute on Aging, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda. B. Lynn Beattie, Professor, Division of Geriatric Medicine, University of British Columbia.

"The range and depth of topics to which the reader - student or graduate practitioner - can now refer, is impressive and impeccably referenced." Hospital Doctor, October 2000

"A large number of skilfully crafted chapters, which will prove invaluable to those with specific clinical or educational applications." Clin Invest Med, October 2000