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Ford: Clinical Toxicology, 1st ed.
Copyright © 2001 W. B. Saunders Company
PREFACE
The significant health impact of deliberate and accidental poisonings resulting from exposures to thousandsof drugs, chemicals, and environmental toxins has led to the development of Medical Toxicology as animportant medical specialty. In the United States, this development was formalized when the AmericanBoard of Medical Specialties recognized Medical Toxicology as a specialty area of practice in 1992. Medicaltoxicologists provide inpatient and outpatient consultation services in hospitals and clinics, provide directcare for poisoned patients in inpatient toxicology units, and offer clinical expertise to laypeople and healthcare providers requesting assistance from poison centers. As well, primary care providers and critical carespecialists also render care to poisoned patients and thus must have a working knowledge of toxicology.Our goal has been to provide students, residents, and practitioners with an authoritative, affordable textbookof medical toxicology, one whose format allows easy access to clinical information. Nurses, pharmacists,and other health care providers will also find this book to be a helpful training and reference source. Theinitial chapters examine broad clinical topics, including variations in advanced life support and airwaymanagement necessitated by different poisonings. Section II focuses on the evaluation and treatment ofpatients with specific signs and symptoms, as well as toxicologic problems encountered in specific organsystems. The third section presents information on commonly encountered drugs and toxins in astandardized format. Emphasis has been placed on clinical presentation and treatment, and thestandardized format and tables make this information more readily accessible to the busy practitioner. Asoften occurs with attempts at uniformity, not every chapter could be fitted to a rigid structure, especially thosecovering multiple drugs or toxins. In these cases, the format was modified appropriately. Concise addendacover therapeutic drug dosages, laboratory values, pertinent legal issues, and helpful Internet sites.Contributors to this textbook represent a diverse group of practitioners of toxicology with varied expertise.We appreciate their hard work and patience during the writing and editing processes and are grateful for thesharing of their knowledge. I (M.D.F) commend my co-editors, whose labors resulted in a morestandardized, readable text.We also thank the staff of W.B. Saunders Company, including Editors Judy Fletcher and Stephanie Donleyand Developmental Editors Beth Hatter and Arlene Chappelle. Their constant attention to our editorial needsand timelines got us past many hurdles and to our goal. We are grateful for the work of the many staffassistants, secretaries, and librarians who assisted with secretarial and bibliographic chores. Finally, thisproject could not have been completed without the support of our families, partners, and friends, whotolerated lost weekends and late evenings—thank you for your understanding.M
ARSHA
D. F
ORD
, K
ATHLEEN
A. D
ELANEY
, L
OUIS
J. L
ING
, T
IMOTHY
E
RICKSON
Copyright © 2007 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. - www.mdconsult.com
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