This 291 page book aims to enable readers to decide if current practices are evidence-based or not in an accessible form with a companion CD Rom with self assessment exercises. It is aimed at practitioners including anaesthetists, surgeons, and nurses. It claims to be suitable for both trainees and practitioners.

The volume contains 26 chapters contributed by 40 authors, many of whom are well known in the “pain world.” The first 3 chapters offer background in evidence-based practice, and the remainder deal with

• scientific basis of pain and analgesia (6 chapters), covering physiological responses to surgery, mechanisms of nociceptive and neuropathic pain, genetics …