Book Review: 2013 EMRA Antibiotic Guide by Brian J. Levine MD

My overall favorable impression of the 2013 EMRA Antibiotic Guide is similar to that of the 2011 edition, about which I wrote:

For almost any infectious disease, the text advises you about which antibiotic to use, along with the appropriate dose, route, frequency and duration. In addition, the text provides you with various alternatives and contingency antibiotic choices for special situations such as allergies, pregnancies, etc….

New improvements to this edition include a separate section for sepsis and an algorithm for Early Goal Directed Therapy.

There are a couple of things that I would like to see in future editions. First, there are some conditions that point to other conditions so cross referencing and additional annotations might help. For example, thrush and vulvovaginal candidiasis, especially when severe, can be red flags for underlying immunosuppression. Early learners might benefit from having this type of information included in the “Pearls” section which follows the respective headings. Second, I’d like to see an entry for rhinocerebral mucormycosis. It is quite rare, but it is one of the deadliest infections in the developed world, so it might be worth mentioning in  an emergency-medicine-oriented infectious diseases publication such as this.

Again, as I wrote in my review of the previous edition:

[T]he guide is concise, “Board-worthy” and memorizable. It is a core title in Infectious Diseases: A Curriculum for Self-Guided Learners, and I recommend it very highly to doctors and to doctors in training.