Annals ofBurns and Fire Disasters - vol. IX - n. 2 - June 1996

BOOK REVIEW

THE MANAGEMENT OF BURNS AND FIRE DISASTERS:
PERSPECTIVES 2000
M. Masellis and S.W.A. Gunn, 603 pages, Kluwer Academic
Publishers, Dordrecht, Boston, London, 1995

This is an extended and logical sequel to the previous (1992) book by the same editors, expanding and strengthening the original interrelated concepts of specialized burn treatment, firefighting services and disaster management. Following the unmitigated success of its predecessor, it was with considerable intellectual curiosity that one awaited the present volume. In number of pages and in chapters this has more than doubled, but it is particularly in its scientific contents that the book is destined to find its niche as the prime compilation on bums therapy, fire prevention and disaster management, in a single, very readable volume.
An expression of the Second International Conference on Burns and Fire Disasters, the book is the product of two pioneers in the field, Professor Michele Masellis, head of the Bum Centre in Palermo, Italy, and Professor William Gunn, former head of the World Health Organization Emergency Relief Operations and current President of the World Association for Disaster and Emergency Medicine. It covers 101 chapters divided into 18 sections, as follows: The bum and fire problem; Fire disasters in society; Bum prevention; Intensive care; Immunology of burns; Complications of burns; Burn infection care; Burn surgery; Biornaterials; Burn scar management; Electrical burns; Hand burns; Rehabilitation; Burn centres; Forest fires; Industrial fire disasters; and International cooperation.
The busy practitioner preoccupied with bum techniques and clinical details will find unusual but professionally not unrelated information on emergency rescue techniques, fire prevention, satellite communication systems, disaster management, simulation exercises, forest fires, industrial explosions, international regulatory standardization, the work of the World Health Organization in humanitarian emergencies, and many more.
The contents and the outlook of the book justify its sub-title "Perspectives 2000", and one learns from a footnote in the introduction that due to the expansion of its fields and its vision, the Mediterranean Burns Club - originator of these books - has modified its name to Mediterranean Club for Burns and Fire Disasters. This is a logical nomenclatorial extension, but it is salutary that the word Club has been maintained, as one of the principal strengths of this imaginative international association is that its members look upon it and collaborate in it as their friendly, professional club.
According to the information on the jacket, the Canadian Medical Journal had called the first volume "a blockbuster book that should be in every medical library". The comment is equally valid for this volume.
Available from: Kluwer Academic Publishers.

In USA and Canada: P.O. Box 358, Accord Station, Hingham Ma 02018-0358, USA
All other countries: P.O. Box 322, Dordrecht, 3300 AH, Holland, The Netherlands Price: US$ 175, GBf 115

SOME BRIEF COMMENTS FROM ACADEMIC INSTITUTIONS
The Management of Burns and Fire Disasters: Perspectives 2000
published for the MBC

"...This is a monumental book..."
Centre for Research on Epidemiology of Disaster Louvain University

... Very interesting... Added it to the Disaster Research Centre Library so that others can benefitfrom its content...
Disaster Research Centre, University of Delaware

"...Impressive book on burns..."
Safar Centre for Resuscitation Research, University of Pittsburgh

"...Greatest gift to all involved in Disaster Medicine as well as to victims of burn andfire disasters. It surely will be for a long time a standard text book on the topic..."
Postgraduate Medical Institute, Prague

"...The Management of Burns and Fire Disaster: Perspectives 2000 - a very readable book which will be very useful. It is exactly the kind of book I wish we had had two years ago, when the gas explosion in Sarajevo became an epidemic..."
International Organization for Migration, Switzerland

.. The Management of Burns and Fire Disasters: Perspectives 2000. This is a perfect reference bookfor reduction offire disasters and improvement ofburns therapy..."
Baskent University, Ankara

"... Excellent book on burns andfire disasters ... A superb contribution to this difficultfleld of medicine"
Department of Surgery, University of Illinois at Chicago

'An excellent contribution which should be widely read."
International Federation of Surgical Colleges

"Clinical experiences ... and surgical considerations which present the state ofthe art and provide perspectives for thefuture."
Turin Bums Centre

"An enormous compilation of recent studies on burn management."
Department of Surgery, University of Pennsylvania

"...Excellent book... "
Chinese Academy of Medical Science

THE MANAGEMENT OF MASS BURN CASUALTIES AND FIRE DISASTERS
M. Masellis and S.W.A. Gunn, 352 pages, Kluwer Academic
Publishers, Dordrecht, Boston, London, 1992. ISBN 0-7923-8804-6

The health professions are continually developing effective techniques of bums and mass casualty management. In parallel, fire prevention and firefighting techniques have developed considerably in most communities. It is therefore surprising that, while aiming at the same objective, the two sectors have seldom come together. The Mediterranean Burns Club is a professional organization that brings together persons concerned with burns therapy and with fire safety in all forms. Identified by the United Nations as a premier scientific body in its field within the programme of the International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction, it initiated the first international gathering of specialists in burns as a surgical, clinical problem, and of counterparts dealing with fires as a social, disaster prob-1em. This novel approach and symbiosis proved timely and successful. This, the resulting book, reflects the commitment of all concerned to the reduction of fire disasters and the improvement of burns therapy.
Price: US$ 125, GB£ 82, NLGu 200

AWARD OF THE G. WHITAKER INTERNATIONAL
BURNS PRIZE PALERMO, ITALY
FOR 1996

In the course of a meeting held on April 26th 1996 at the seat of the G. Whitaker Foundation, the Adjudicating Committee, after examining the scientific activity in the field of research, teaching, clinical organization, prevention and cooperation among the nations presented by the various candidates, unanimously decided, in the light of the consideration guiding the analysis of the high level of the candidates, to award the prize for 1996 to:
John Burke M.D., Emeritus Professor of Surgery at the Harvard University Medical Faculty and Emeritus Director of the Trauma Service, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston USA
The Prize was awarded with the following motivation:
"for dedicating a lifetime to teaching and to the assistance of patients in the sector of surgery. He has a vast and qualified activity in the field of burns, to the knowledge of which he has contributed with numerous publications on various aspects, in particular infections and metabolism. His studies for the realization of artificial skin and the use of biornaterials have been notable."

The official prize-giving of the prestigious award will be held on September 26th 1996 in Palermo at the seat of the G. Whitaker Foundation in the presence of the authorities and of representatives of the academic, scientific and cultural world.

G. WHITAKER INTERNATIONAL BURNS PRIZE PALERMO (ITALY)
under the patronage of the Authorities of the Sicilian Region for 1997

By law n' 57 of June 14th 1983 the Sicilian Regional Assembly authorized the President of the Region to grant the "Giuseppe Whitaker Foundation", a non-profit-making organization under the patronage of the Accadernia dei Lincei with seat in Palermo, an annual contribution for the establishment of the "G. Whitaker International Bums Prize" aimed at recognizing the activity of the most qualified experts from all countries in the field of bums pathology and treatment.
The amount of the prize is fixed at twenty million Italian lire. The prize is awarded each year by the month of June in Palermo at the seat of the G. Whitaker Foundation.
The Adjudicating Committee is composed of the President of the Foundation, the President of the Sicilian Region, the Representative of the Accademia dei Lincei within the G. Whitaker Foundation, the Dean of the Faculty of Medicine and Surgery of Palermo University, three experts in the field of prevention, pathology, therapy and functional re-covery of burns, the winner of the prize awarded the previous year, and a legal expert nominated in agreement with the President of the Sicilian Region as a guarantee of the respect for the scientific purposes which the legislators intended when establishing the prize.
All persons who consider themselves to be qualified to compete for the award are invited to send their detailed curriculum no later than 3 1 st January 1997 to Michele Masellis M.D., Secretary-Member of the Scientific Committee, G. Whitaker Foundation, Via Dante 167, 90141 Palermo, Italy.




 

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