Reviewer: Tariq M. Malik, MD (University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine)
Description: This brief overview practically covers all chronic pain topics and all techniques in the management of chronic pain. Realistically, it's a companion handbook to Comprehensive Treatment of Chronic Pain by Medical, Interventional, and Behavioral Approaches: The American Academy of Pain Medicine Textbook on Patient Management, Deer et al. (Springer, 2013), by some of the same authors.
Purpose: Although the authors do not state their intentions for this book, it is obvious from the title that they aim to provide a concise summary of the original. That book is very extensive, hence quite daunting. In contrast, this book is meant as a synopsis and is much more user friendly. More or less, the purpose is served.
Audience: The focus is on multidisciplinary chronic pain management. Prime audiences are pain fellows, pain practitioners, and even primary care physicians who deal with patients with chronic pain on daily basis. There is a long list of contributors who come from all sorts of backgrounds private practice, academic practice, and large and small institutions. A few are experts, others are experienced practitioners, and a few I am not familiar with.
Features: Grouped into 16 sections, the 98 chapters cover every aspect of chronic pain management. The first two sections deal with chronic pain physiology and anatomy, followed by a section reviewing how to clinically evaluate different regions of the body from a chronic pain standpoint. The next two sections discuss the role of imaging and neurophysiology in chronic pain management and outline pain pharmacology, including opioids, steroids, anticonvulsants, and antidepressants. Section seven is a compilation of interventional procedures routinely performed in a pain practice under ultrasound or fluoroscopic guidance. Three sections cover implantable therapies, namely neuromodulation therapies both central and peripheral, as well as intrathecal implantable drug devices. Percutaneous lumbar decompression for spinal stenosis is also discussed. Another section reviews common chronic pain conditions and their management like migraine headache, failed back syndrome, cancer pain, and host of other conditions. The last three sections cover miscellaneous topics, such as the business aspects of a pain practice, and mitigating risks in a pain practice, among other things. The book is almost a dictionary of pain medicine, where one can find everything about pain but not in great detail. It's not an encyclopedia or a textbook of pain. It provides no clinical guidance regarding management or how to perform a block, but it does outline steps for such interventions. It's too brief to be of any real use if one is looking for in-depth information, but it can help readers with what to look for and giving direction.
Assessment: This is a companion to the main textbook, no more and no less. By itself it has no purpose. It can serve as a refresher for those taking a certifying pain exam. Some of the procedures are well described but, in general, topics are covered so briefly that unless readers are familiar with the topic, they will be lost and will not get any real meaningful information.
This book is a good reference for all physicians practicing pain medicine. … I congratulate the editors and contributors for putting together an informative and useful book on chronic pain.” (Kazuhiro Watanabe, Anesthesia & Analgesia, Vol. 126 (5), May,2018)
“This brief overview practically covers all chronic pain topics and all techniques in the management of chronic pain. … The focus is on multidisciplinary chronic pain management. Prime audiences are pain fellows, pain practitioners, and even primary care physicians who deal with patients with chronic pain on daily basis. … It can serve as a refresher for those taking a certifying pain exam.” (Tariq M. Malik, Doody's Book Reviews, December, 2017)