Print and Media Review

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The publishers' stated aims for this book are to describe the “impact of generation, gender, and global trends,” to update readers on advancements in “pathogenesis, epidemiology, and natural history,” and to create “a timeline and individualized plan of action … throughout the life cycle of the patient.” This is a tall order for a single, 260-page, 5 × 8-inch hardcover book, and honestly, these aims are not entirely achieved in this slim volume. However, this book is a valuable supplement to current adult reference texts on inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). In positioning this book in relation to its larger (>5 pounds each) and older cousins, Bayless and Hanauer's Advances in IBD, and Targan's From Bench to Bedside, Changing World provides especially strong sections on pediatric and adolescent IBD, the transition to adulthood, and issues of fertility, pregnancy, and breastfeeding, which set this book apart.

Changing World has 20 chapters and 27 authors, leading to some inconsistency in writing style and formatting. The book is organized into 5 sections, and is formatted with helpful tables and high resolution black and white photographs, making it suitable for use as an e-book (it is available on Amazon.com, but not yet available for the Kindle). The chapters on fertility and treatment during pregnancy provide concise answers to common patient questions (and clear tables on medications and pregnancy and breastfeeding) that, with a well-placed bookmark, could make this a handy reference on many gastroenterologists' shelves. I particularly liked the concise summary of chronic management by David Rubin, and the summary of current controversies by Corey Siegel, both of which covered a lot of ground in a few short pages.

The second and third sections of this book could represent the core of a short text on pediatric IBD, but this part of the book can be frustratingly inconclusive, because the available data on pediatric IBD are often quite thin. As an example, the chapter entitled “Medication Responsiveness in Children” by Michael Stevens honestly assesses the field and concludes that a large knowledge gap remains, and that more clinical trials with careful pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic assessment in children are sorely needed. However, pediatric and women's issues in IBD are clearly a passion of the editors, and these sections shine as the strongest ones in the book. In contrast, the section on IBD in the elderly has only 11 pages of text, although Darrell Pardi's exposition of a careful differential diagnosis of possible new IBD in the elderly is worthy of a bookmark for the busy clinician.

There are currently no reference texts dedicated to women's issues in IBD, and Mamula's 686-page text on pediatric IBD is more than many adult gastroenterologists would want. Changing World is a manageable supplement to a standard adult IBD text that addresses women's and pediatric issues well. The meat of the book is the 11 chapters on IBD in children and young adults, and its strength is presenting concise overviews of these topics, which often generate questions and referrals to tertiary centers. Although this book is organized thematically into sections, each chapter is short and stands well on its own, with helpful summary tables that make it useful for quick consultations between patients. If more depth of information is desired, numerous and up-to-date references are provided at the end of each chapter, and the index is well organized for quickly finding particular topics.

Bottom Line: Although Changing World does not accomplish all of the many goals the publisher touts on the back cover, it is a valuable supplement to adult reference texts, with particular strengths in pediatric and women's issues in IBD. This book will be a useful adjunct on the bookshelf of adult gastroenterologists who see IBD. Pediatric gastroenterologists who prefer small, manageable reference books may find this a handy reference, but those seeing a lot of IBD may prefer the comprehensive Pediatric Inflammatory Bowel Disease text by Mamula.