Overview
For forty years The ECG Made Easy has been regarded as one of best introductory guides to the ECG. With over half a million sales and translations into a dozen languages, this book, hailed by the British Medical Journal as a "medical classic", has been a favourite of generations of medical students and nurses. It directs users of the electrocardiogram to straightforward and accurate identification of normal and abnormal ECG patterns. With the emphasis throughout on simplicity and practical application, this Eighth Edition will prove invaluable to all medical and health care staff who require clear, basic knowledge about the ECG.
This famous book encourages the reader to accept that the ECG is easy to understand and that its use is just a natural extension of taking the patient’s history and performing a physical examination.
• A practical and highly informative guide to a difficult subject.
• Provides a full understanding of the ECG in the diagnosis and management of abnormal cardiac rhythms.
• Emphasises the role of the full 12 lead ECG with realistic reproduction of recordings.
• The unique page size allows presentation of all 12-lead ECGs across a single page for clarity.
• Restructured into two clear sections, the first ‘The Basics’ explains the ECG in the simplest possible terms.
• The new second section, ‘Making the most of the ECG’, has separate chapters on the ECG patterns that might be seen in healthy subjects and in patients presenting with chest pain, breathlessness, palpitations or syncope.
Conduction & its problems, the rhythm of the heart, abnormalities of P waves, QRS complexes, T waves.
Editorials
From the Publisher
"This pocket sized hero, the epitome of the medical classic, explains the ‘three Rs’ - rate, rhythm and right (or left) cardiac axis - in plain English and with elegant diagrams."British Medical Journal
‘This excellent little book…is undoubtedly suited to medical students and junior house staff who are anxious to obtain a basic understanding of the ECG in a short time.’
European Heart Journal
"The ECG Made Easy has for some time been the pocket reference for junior doctors... invaluable in a clinical setting."
Nursing Standard
"A godsend to thousands of practising physicians and surgeons who have never mastered the ECG, but always felt they should have done."
European Medical Journal
From The Critics
Reviewer: Michael Edward Criswell, BSN, MSN, DNP(Purdue University School of Nursing)Description: This is a valuable pocket guide for healthcare professionals, who wish to review the essentials of electrocardiographic analysis. This book provides a concise and easy to understand the mechanisms of cardiac rhythm, conduction abnormalities, arrhythmias, and bundle branch blocks, using the 12-lead approach. The chapters flow in a logical format and the illustrations are relevant and include example 12 lead ECGs for analysis. Each chapter ends with the treatment for discussed arrhythmias as well as reminders to help the reader review. The book concludes with several 12-lead practice strips with answers provided. The fifth edition was published in 1997.
Purpose: The author states that the purpose of this book is to provide a review for healthcare professionals in the essentials of ECG. This book does provide a quick and easy reference for most ECG abnormalities and therefore is a good review text. The fifth edition was in 1997 and one would question what new material is included to warrant a sixth edition. I do find that the book accomplishes what the author says it does and is a useful pocket guide for healthcare professionals only, since the medical terminology is not defined and it is assumed the reader is a healthcare provider.
Audience: This book as stated by the author is intended for "medical students, nurses, and paramedics." The author is correct in his target audience, since they all would all have some previous anatomy and physiology, and ECG experience even if at a rudimentary level. Students might find this book somewhat difficult since some measure of medical terminology and cardiac physiology are needed since the book does not allocate time in these areas.
Features: This book covers in a concise way the anatomy and physiology of the cardiac conduction system and a systematic system for assessing the 12-lead ECG. Then the author delves into abnormalities of cardiac conduction with a nice review of heart blocks and then reviews arrhythmias both supraventular as well as ventricular. A nice concise review of 12 lead interpretation and bundle branch blocks are included and all abnormalities as reviewed in a 12-lead ECG format. A nice feature is the 12-lead ECG practice strips at the end of the book with answers provided. The reminders at the end of each chapter assist the reader to remember what is essentially important. The size of the book (pocket), makes the book useful so that it can be carried into the clinical area to be used as a reference. The treatments for each arrhythmias are mentioned in a short sentence at the end of each chapter. However, the American Heart Association's current ACLS algorithms would be useful to include. Medical terminology and anatomy and physiology are limited, too.
Assessment: This is a useful pocket guide for reviewing 12-lead ECG rhythm and dysrhythmias. It is a review book and not intended for the beginning practitioner or student. The strengths include easy to follow progression of abnormalities as well as good review of bundle branch blocks and interpreting 12-lead ECGs. The review strips are helpful. I have not read the earlier editions of this book but the information included is not new and is probably included in the earlier texts.
3 Stars from Doody