Clinical Pain Management: Chronic Pain PDF

Series preface

Since the successful first edition of Clinical Pain Management was published in 2002, the evidence base in many areas of pain medicine has changed substantially, thus creating the need for this second edition. We have retained the central ethos of the first volume in that we have continued to provide comprehensive coverage of pain medicine, with the text geared predominantly to the requirements of those training and practicing in pain medicine and related specialties. The emphasis continues to be on delivering this coverage in a format that is easily accessed and digested by the busy clinician in practice.

As before, Clinical Pain Management comprises four volumes. The first three cover the main disciplines of acute, chronic, and cancer pain management, and the fourth volume covers the practical aspects of clinical practice and research. The four volumes can be used independently, while together they give readers all they need to know to deliver a successful pain management service.

Of the 161 chapters in the four volumes, almost a third are brand new to this edition while the chapters that have been retained have been completely revised, in many cases under new authorship. This degree of change reflects ongoing progress in this broad field, where research and development provide a rapidly evolving evidence base. The international flavor of Clinical Pain Management remains an important feature, and perusal of the contributor pages will reveal that authors and editors are drawn from a total of 16 countries.

A particularly popular aspect of the first edition was the practice of including a system of simple evidence scoring in most of the chapters. This enables the reader to understand quickly the strength of evidence which supports a particular therapeutic statement or recommendation. This has been retained for the first three volumes, where appropriate. We have, however, improved the system used for scoring evidence from a three point scale used in the first edition and adopted the five point Bandolier system which is in widespread use and will be instantly familiar to many readers (www.jr2.ox.ac.uk/ bandolier/band6/b6-5.html).

We have also retained the practice of asking authors to highlight the key references in each chapter. Following feedback from our readers we have added two new features for this edition: first, there are key learning points at the head of each chapter summarizing the most salient points within the chapter; and second, the series is accompanied by a companion website with downloadable figures.

This project would not have been possible without the hard work and commitment of the chapter authors and we are deeply indebted to all of them for their contributions. The volume editors have done a sterling job in diligently editing a large number of chapters, and to them we are also most grateful. Any project of this magnitude would be impossible without substantial support from the publishers - in particular we would like to acknowledge our debt to Jo Koster and Zelah Pengilley at Hodder. They have delivered the project on a tight deadline and ensured that a large number of authors and editors were kept gently, but firmly, ‘‘on track.''

would also like to add my personal thanks to the Series Editors who have given their time generously and made invaluable contributions through the whole editorial process from the very outset of discussions regarding a second edition in deciding upon the content of each volume and in selecting Volume Editors. More recently, they have provided an important second view in the consideration of all submitted chapters, not to mention stepping in and assisting with first edits where needed. The timely completion of the second edition would not have been possible without this invaluable input.