Ophthalmic Anesthesia is a multiauthored international collaboration from Europe, England, Canada, and the United States by clinicians who practice eye anesthesia daily and write from experience. Since 1982, eight texts devoted specifically to ophthalmic anesthesia have been written, most recently in 1998. This book is a worthy and timely addition to this literature. An increasing number of anesthesiologists are becoming involved in the anesthesia care of ophthalmic patients and contributing to safe, efficient eye surgery. This book not only reviews the basic science principles of eye anatomy, physiology, and pharmacology, but also details the current clinical techniques and skills of modern anesthesia practice for ophthalmic procedures. As with any multiauthored text, the chapter quality is variable, but for the most part the book is well organized, readable, well referenced, up-to-date, and clinically useful information. The chapters covering pharmacology, regional orbital blocks, topical anesthesia, sedation monitoring, and complications provide excellent, thorough discussions of their topics. Chapters devoted to uveal tract melanoma and high volume cataract surgery are unusual and present narrowly focused accounts of the authors’ experiences. The references are usually late 90s with occasional 2000 and 2001 articles. The references for morbidity data in the preoperative assessment chapter are, however, dated. Techniques such as subtenons block, topical block, use of LMA, and consequences of intraocular gas bubbles are discussed.
