by Zwaan Johan

Physicians approaching a patient or a clinical problem come to the right diagnosis or the most appropriate treatment by a process of selection and elimination of choices. Some of this takes place subliminally and the more experience the practitioner has, the quicker and more automatically the process becomes. This is a book of algorithms or ‘decision trees’ which make the process of decision-making visible. To emphasize the central position of the ‘decision trees’ in the chapters, they have been moved to the front of the chapters, with the text amplifying points of the tree (marked by capital letters referring to paragraphs of the text) to follow. Other changes from previous editions include the use of tables and graphs and inclusion of color illustrations. The ‘trees’ have partially been color-coded: surgical treatments are shown in red, pharmaceutical ones in green and other treatments in blue. In each chapter, the text is not meant to provide a complete review of a topic and the references mostly refer to the text in general, not to a specific paragraph. This is also true for the figures. Within the framework of the book, the authors had a great deal of freedom in composing their chapters. For those readers who used the previous editions, you will notice that some chapters have stayed virtually the same, while others have been completely rewritten. All chapters have been reviewed.