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Management of Cardiac ArrhythmiasEdited by Leonard I. Ganz. 527 pp., Humana Press 2002. $125.

ISBN 0-89603-846-7

Management of Cardiac Arrhythmias is in-tended to “help inform physicians and surgeonsabout recent advances in the diagnosis and man-agement of patients with cardiac arrhythmias,and to describe how electrophysiologists can as-sist in the care of their patients.” It is there-fore a textbook for non-electrophysiologists whoneed to keep track of the exploding informationand treatment options in the world of cardiacelectrophysiology. It is of particular interest toreaders who wish to gain a complete perspec-tive on contemporary management of cardiacarrhythmias.

This book divides 527 pages into 21 chapters.It starts with the history of cardiac electrophysiol-ogy and diagnosis of cardiac arrhythmias. It is fol-lowed by chapters on approach and managementof different types of supraventricular and ven-tricular arrhythmias. The book ends with specialconsiderations of arrhythmias in pediatric patientsand arrhythmias during pregnancy. The book mea-sures 26 cm by 18 cm, which makes it easy tocarry and read.

This book has many strengths. Each chapteris essentially written by the leading experts in thefields and, in some chapters, the persons most re-sponsible for our understanding of the subjects.It is written in a simplified approach to providean overview of the problems. All of the chaptersare clinically oriented and summarized in a verypractical fashion. Dedicated chapters are given to“hot” topics like nonsustained ventricular tachy-cardia and percutaneous catheter ablation to cureatrial fibrillation. Difficult subjects like catheter ab-lation of ventricular tachycardia are simplified intoa concise and practical style that is appropriate forthe non-electrophysiologist. Special topics like ar-rhythmias in pediatrics patients and during preg-nancy have dedicated chapters that serve as goodreferences for practicing clinicians.

Cardiac electrophysiology is a fast-moving field.Much of what we learn becomes clinical dogmafaster than the presses can print. Important pre-liminary results of trials like Dual Site Atrial Pacingfor Prevention of Atrial Fibrillation (DAPPAF), AtrialDynamic Overdrive Pacing Trial-A (ADOPT-A), andMulticenter Automatic Defibrillator ImplantationTrial II (MADIT-II) are now available and change ourways of thinking about and managing cardiac ar-rhythmia. However, this book is able to elucidatethe principles behind these trials and provides acognitive framework for continued developmentin this field.

As in any other multiauthored textbook, thereis overlap of information. Catheter ablation ofatrial fibrillation is covered in the chapter on non-pharmacological treatment of atrial fibrillation andagain in the dedicated chapter on percutaneouscatheter ablation to cure atrial fibrillation. Top-ics like approaches to syncope and anticoagu-lation in atrial fibrillation are also overlapped indifferent chapters. However, these are very im-portant topics in the management of cardiac ar-rhythmias, and it is nice to have opinions by dif-ferent renowned experts. This book is particularlyable to offer critical reviews with personal expe-riences by these distinguished authors.

In summary, this book should be re-garded as an important supplement for non-electrophysiologists who take care of arrhythmicpatients. In particular it serves as an excellentand concise clinical guide on the contemporarymanagement of cardiac arrhythmias.

Patrick Lam, MD, FRCS(C)Clinical Fellow,

Cardiac ElectrophysiologyBrigham and Women’s Hospital

Harvard Medical SchoolBoston, Massachusetts