Doody's Review Service

Reviewer:	David Dries, MSE, MD (Regions Hospital)

Description
This is a comprehensive book on fluid therapy in the ICU. The sponsoring organization for this intellectual project is the International Fluid Academy which has made it possible for this to be an Open Access Volume. The dimensions of intellectual presentations included in this book range from fluid physiology to the frontiers of contemporary research in fluid management.

Purpose
This book presents fluids as drugs which should be prescribed as other medications would be to the critically ill patient. The many effects of fluid-based interventions are reviewed. This attractive book describes optimal prescription of fluids based on physiologic principles. Illustrations, abundant lists of current references, and excellent multicolored line drawings which complement observations made in the text strongly support the presentation of this content material.

Audience
The primary audience for this book is the specialists and their trainees who will touch critically ill patients. Disciplines which will benefit from this collection of topics include the medical intensivists, emergency department physicians, emergency surgeons, anesthesiologist, critical care nursing staff, and the pharmacists supporting critical-care practice. The senior editors represent noted teaching facilities in Western Europe and the Middle East. The lead editor represents the first Department of Anesthesiology and Intensive Therapy at the Medical University of Lublin in Lublin, Poland.

Features
The book includes 28 chapters divided into four parts which review the core concepts of fluid stewardship in the critical care environment. Chapters in the first part of this book introduce the essentials of intravenous fluid therapy. Topics incorporated in these initial chapters include water volume determination and distribution of water between plasma, the interstitial fluid space and intracellular fluid. The dimensions of the interstitium which are clearly reviewed are the role of collagen in fluid distribution, the aqueous components of the interstitium, and the physiology of hyaluronan gel. The book discusses guidance of fluid shifts by the lymphatics in partnership with the interstitium to facilitate review of the fluid shifts which regulate cell volume in various body compartments. Another important chapter features heart-lung interactions with the characterization of the left and right ventricles as serial pumps linked by the pulmonary and systemic vasculature. While fluids are the stated topic for this text, a strength of this book is the description of the actions of the interface between fluids given and end-organ function. The book effectively presents patient response to fluid administration not as the action of a passive plumbing system, but as a physical act which may be manifest in pulmonary embolism, pulmonary hypertension, and cardiopulmonary system interaction during mechanical ventilation among other events. Vascular pressure changes, for example, which may be affected during heart-lung interaction allow prediction of hemodynamic alterations and serve as a means for the writers to generate a framework for functional hemodynamic monitoring, blood component function, and the cumulative effects of coagulation. The book reviews another essential critical care fluid, blood for transfusion, as an essential component of patient management. Various presentations in this text include transfusion strategies for blood products, the impact of age in administered red blood cells, and results following from coagulopathy and thrombocytopenia associated with blood product administration. The impact of blood product administration as measured by thromboelastography helps place the unique physiology of blood products in context for the reader along with description of an important assessment tool. Finally, the book discusses at length the interaction of infectious disease with fluid use as reflected in COVID-19 in the context of resuscitation and maintenance fluids, management of total fluid volumes in the infected patient, and the quality of available management evidence for multiorgan support with particular interest on pulmonary function. Chapters are clearly written with content delineated by a highly detailed table of contents which includes attribution of authorship. Chapters make excellent use of multi-color, well-designed line drawings to complement observations made in the text and share relevant physiology while each chapter also includes an abundance of references, featuring important contributions to primary literature dating to within a few years prior to publication for this book. An index is not provided.

Assessment
This book is a unique and important review of the physiology of fluid composition and utilization essential to effective critical care practice. The editors and authors who represent international authorities in these topics have done their job with outstanding attention to detail. This work is a guide to the most important aspects of fluid therapy worthy of appreciation by those treating critical illness or injury. An important perspective shared by the writers is the need to thoughtfully consider fluids with the same focus as other drugs in the ICU. Beginning with a presentation on fundamentals of fluid therapy, use of this tool in special conditions, along with concepts of stewardship described gives the reader a worthy tool for fluid utilization in the ICU.