Evidence-based medicine has become the new religion for many in the healthcare professions. It is greeted by the believers as the answer to all their clinical problems while the sceptics view this new upstart with grave suspicion and delight in finding discrepancies between the conclusions of evidence-based medicine and large randomised controlled trials. Like many new ideas in medicine, evidence-based practice has matured over the past decade so that a more balanced view of the strengths and weaknesses of this technique is now possible. Ann Møller and Tom Pedersen are authorities in evidence-based medicine as applied to anaesthesia and in this book have assembled a group of distinguished authors.

The first part of the book describes the underlying principles used in evidence-based medicine with a critical evaluation of potential errors and pitfalls. The teaching of evidence-based medicine is a particularly important topic as it is used increasingly in undergraduate medicine. There remains fierce debate over its role in education. The second part of the book explores the use of evidence-based anaesthesia. Many key topics in the specialty are covered and the authors have published extensively in their areas of expertise. Thus this book not only covers the theoretical basis of the subject but also provides practical help for the anaesthesiologist.