I was surprised by the detail that this small book covered, but it explained just enough without being too much. Very good for someone needing a little more guidance through the topic of electrolytes and such. Lots of information in each short chapter and good practice questions.

This book truly reduces the breadth of information to a manageable and understandable format.

I recommend this book for anyone needing a refresher of previously learned information, and for those that need a thorough basis for future study.

This book is awesome. It gets right to the point. Preston is incredible. He actually taught some of our acid-base lectures during renal, and they were some of the best lectures we have had. I highly recommend this book!

enjoing your reading
a practical and easy to understand little book which give you the key to approach first, and most important, a lot of true clinical problem and second, more heavy textbook abt the issues treated.

I purchased this book with some doubt, because you see a very high variability in these series. Now, i am very happy. Every medical student and resident gets frustrated with fliuid and electrolytes. Reading textbooks makes it worse. I have seen a lot of attendings and Nephrologists (!!) who are scared of this subject. This book can help you tremendously. It is written in a very simple language and gives you the proper approach to fluid and electrolyte problems. It is full of practical examples that you will see every day and shows you how to solve them. After reading this book, you will be confident enough to deal with electrolytes. Instead of replacing electrolytes blindly with K-Dur and Neutra-Phos and .... and not knowing what to do with Hyponatremia, you will have a nice framework in your brain to deal with them. And the best part: It is a small book. Don't hesitate to get it. You won't regret.

I purchased this book with some doubt, because you see a very high variability in these series. Now, i am very happy. Every medical student and resident gets frustrated with fliuid and electrolytes. Reading textbooks makes it worse. I have seen a lot of attendings and Nephrologists (!!) who are scared of this subject. This book can help you tremendously. It is written in a very simple language and gives you the proper approach to fluid and electrolyte problems. It is full of practical examples that you will see every day and shows you how to solve them. After reading this book, you will be confident enough to deal with electrolytes. Instead of replacing electrolytes blindly with K-Dur and Neutra-Phos and .... and not knowing what to do with Hyponatremia, you will have a nice framework in your brain to deal with them. And the best part: It is a small book. Don't hesitate to get it. You won't regret.

This book does only provide some miner basic understanding of Na, K, and acid base pathophysiology and replacement. Other e-lytes such as magnesium, calcium, phosphor and especially the interaction of those is completely missing. The acid base part is ok for getting a basic understanding of whats going on.
Overall I would say that there much better options to spend your money on.

I hardly anytime would give "5" stars to any products, but this just blew my doubts and misunderstanding out to pieces. I don't want to sound too explicit, but actually it's better than sex when you understand something and everything come to senses.

I mean you out there tell me what other book can teach you so perfectly acid base balances, mixed disorder and anion gap acidosis? No other. Considering even residents who work in US don't know how to calculate electrolyte, this is a topic regarded lightly by students. But I don't think so. By giving wrong fluid to critical patient, is not a good story to tell. It's so critical we have to know it. And first time I felt this material to be easy.

One day I was so frustrated on some acid base question of mixed acid base disorder, and was frantically searching in google, yahoo, msn , or anything I can put my hands on to enlighten concept as how to calculate electrolytes but without avail. So frustrated I even couldn't sleep that night. I tried to forget but soon it came to my mind boggling unsolved calculation. Then I was sparkled to my mind that I bought this book long time ago and it might explain to me something better. Sooner opening the page than I was gobbling all I could gorge the materials. That night, after I've done doing all the problems in that little book, I said to myself, Oh boy, this is actually better than sex!

the beauty of this book is way the explanation is so step wise and gives you a smooth comprehension followed by problems which makes you sure that you get it.

I mean I looked everwhere..... Even the Harrison didn't have the slightest notion of practical calculation to what it appears complex electrolyte acid base balance, but this little book made it so simple that finally made me think to sue Harrison(well just joking..)

First time I bought this book, I didn't take it seriously and put it in back corner of bookshelves, but I was so glad I bought it. I'm telling ya, this is the only book can save your exam and your patient as well.

This is an excellent book for those interested in laying the foundation toward the understanding of fluids and acid/base. This is an exceptionally intricate topic but this book really does a great job in getting you started. I think the target audience is ideally the 3rd year medical student. However, it is never too late to read this book and as a resident I go back to it on occasion to help me to see the greater picture.
This book is very interesting and can be read with understanding in a weekend. However, I must say this is one of those books that should be read many times over. Every time I pick it up I learn something new...however, that is part of the beauty of acid/base and electrolytes in general.

I believe that electrolytes are the key to much of medicine. However, most students/residents/attendings dismiss electrolytes as if they represent merely yesterday's news. As stated - I think this book is really a very good STARTER-book. The electrolytes fever may take place here. Should you catch the fever I have two more books that I highly recommend.

Pick up Mitch Halperin's Fluid, Electrolyte, and Acid-Base Physiology. This book is full of clinical examples and uses a practical integrative physiology approach to learning. Well worth any amount of money that you put down.

Burton Rose's Clinical Physiology of Acid-Base and Electrolyte Disorders is a beautiful text as well. This is the "Up-to-Date" guy that many residents/physicians use while on-call. Heck, most physicians that use the service have read his hyponatremia sections in Up-to-Date. Well, his book will NOT disappoint.

This is an excellent book for those interested in laying the foundation toward the understanding of fluids and acid/base. This is an exceptionally intricate topic but this book really does a great job in getting you started. I think the target audience is ideally the 3rd year medical student. However, it is never too late to read this book and as a resident I go back to it on occasion to help me to see the greater picture.
This book is very interesting and can be read with understanding in a weekend. However, I must say this is one of those books that should be read many times over. Every time I pick it up I learn something new...however, that is part of the beauty of acid/base and electrolytes in general.

I believe that electrolytes are the key to much of medicine. However, most students/residents/attendings dismiss electrolytes as if they represent merely yesterday's news. As stated - I think this book is really a very good STARTER-book. The electrolytes fever may take place here. Should you catch the fever I have two more books that I highly recommend.

Pick up Mitch Halperin's Fluid, Electrolyte, and Acid-Base Physiology. This book is full of clinical examples and uses a practical integrative physiology approach to learning. Well worth any amount of money that you put down.

Burton Rose's Clinical Physiology of Acid-Base and Electrolyte Disorders is a beautiful text as well. This is the "Up-to-Date" guy that many residents/physicians use while on-call. Heck, most physicians that use the service have read his hyponatremia sections in Up-to-Date. Well, his book will NOT disappoint.

This is an excellent book for those interested in laying the foundation toward the understanding of fluids and acid/base. This is an exceptionally intricate topic but this book really does a great job in getting you started. I think the target audience is ideally the 3rd year medical student. However, it is never too late to read this book and as a resident I go back to it on occasion to help me to see the greater picture.
This book is very interesting and can be read with understanding in a weekend. However, I must say this is one of those books that should be read many times over. Every time I pick it up I learn something new...however, that is part of the beauty of acid/base and electrolytes in general.

I'm glad I found this - fluids and acid/base is one of those topics that is easy to get a grip on (even basic EMT's have a fair working knowledge of it) but very difficult to master, unless someone shows you the path. In this case, the path goes through the loop of Henle, and while you will get lost if you don't know your renal physiology (you better know the loop cold) this is the best little volume I've ever seen for laying it all out. It is a very dense book - there is no fluff. I gave up highlighting after a while because nearly every line was important. It will also bear repeated readings. Some of the chapters only made sense on the second or third reading, and this was with the material made as simple as it could be made. But if you're stuck on nephrology and acid/base and can't seem to make heads or tails of this topic, I highly recommend this little book. It also greatly benefits from multiple real world exercises using the many formulae that you'll learn, calculating fluid and electrolyte defecits. Great stuff.

For PA's and MD's (and students of same.) I can't see it being of any real use to staff nurses unless they work in a really high speed ICU or they just want to know a lot more than they learned in school.

This is a wonderful little book that makes these complex topics clear. The concepts are laid out in easy-to-follow steps, and the cases at the end of each chapter really help you integrate the concepts.

If you are looking for a clear introduction to this complex topic, you will find this book a superb guide. I've enjoyed Acid-Base the most of the "Ridiculously Simple" series, and found it to be elegantly simple.

First - to comment on the "negative reviews":
1 - Yes, you need to know some renal physio to read this book, this is a book that is highly recommended for Medical Students, not for patient education.
2 - Right - this book is not intended to teach Renal physio -- read the title of this book. Dont look for explanations on GFR and the such in here -- this book was not made for this.
Ok - now my review:
This book will help you in your clinical studies tremendously -- it helped me while taking internal medicine (helps you finally learn which patients need which kinds of fluids with which supplementations, and at what rate to give it, etc.), tx of DKA is prevalent in my hospital and it helped with that too. It helped me in Critical Care -- where accurate reading of ABGs is mandatory, hyponatremia/pseudohyponatremia is super common, and other electrolyte disturbances need to be evaluated. Even helped me in GI! I haven't taken Nephro yet -- but I am sure it will help me there too.
This book is concise, logical, and clear. It makes tough topics easy to understand, but does not oversimplify. Topics that are super high yield for clinical practice and step 2 are explained perfectly. Perfect for med students. I think it will be too simplistic for residents -- who I think already know this stuff cold. This book is great and I highly recommend it.

If you are a medical professional or student you will probably LOVE this book and I enjoyed what I could comprehend. But I would mention that the marketing of the book is misleading because there is a prerequisite renal knowledge which is not directly disclosed. It is not 'ridiculously simple' at all without the background. The cartoon cover implies it would reflect a simpler content. The sample book pages skip page 1 and 2 explaining the prerequisites. The last on-line page identifies the target audience. So buyer beware. I am not qualified to comment on the content other than it is very well organized, concise and has lots of examples.

I'm a first year PA student about to enter into the second clinical year. This "Ridculously Simple" book saved me during our nephrology unit. It made difficult topics accessible and in plain English; the questions section at the end of each chapter helps to bring concepts together clinically. I struggled with kidneys and ended up acing the test, mostly due to this book...I hear from many medical students/PA's they often refer to this book during their internal medicine rotations. Lastly, I found the neuroanatamy book by the same publishers equally as helpful.

Not a bad book for the basics. It will get you by, but it does not replace a good physiology text.

Ok well it seems that everyone loved this book. This is an excellent basics approach to the kidney topic. It has excellent clinical applications for hyper/hypo kal and natrimia. It also has a great section on approaching acid-base problems in a 3 step system. This was a wonderful inclusion. The one problem for those wanting to know about physiology, this book doesn't contain it! NOTHING on clearance, GFR, or Renal blood flow! If it had this it would be a 5 star. It is a complete power house if you buy it and Lippencott's physiology board review.

You'll never outgrow this book. During our 2 weeks of renal pathophysiology in med school I was out with chickenpox. I couldn't have mastered this very difficult topic on my own without this "ridiculously simple" but surprisingly comprehensive and intelligent guide. I continued to use it during 3rd and 4th year and have referred to it countless times over the course of residency. Besides the excellent explanation of ABG analysis, the chapter on hyponatremia is superb. It gives a much more intelligent and rational approach (based on the anatomy of the nephron) than the traditional algorithm. I'm sure I will continue to use this book as the years go by. Buy it- you'll definately get your money's worth.

It is Just great. it opens your concepts for further and more complicated problems on these topic. Is a Must have for students and for all residents.

Acid-Base, Fluids and Electrolytes MRS is an outstanding book. It presents a traditionaly complex subject in a clear way. It is an excellent teaching tool for medical students and internal medicine residents.

This book is concise, thorough and straight forward. It helped me during my first two years in medical school and also on third and fourth year rotations. Pocketsize and simple. It's real easy to use and you remember what you read when you get pimped in the wards! Preston did a wonderful job on this book.

This a well-written, very easy to read medical text. It helped me to better understand the subject in a matter of hours. It is so organized and each topic is wonderfully explained in great detail. There is no other books like it. All medical students and residents should have a copy in hand. Dr. Preston is truly a great teacher and an amazing writter.

Acid/Base Made Simple was a very valuable guide during all four years of med school -- it saved me more than a few times from embarassing gaps in knowledge. Three of my residents said that they still use it as their primary reference when they encounter acid/base physiology problems. The explanations were crystal clear and the topics addressed are all clinically important ones that come up again and again in the hospital. The book has excellent diagrams, but its strongest point I thought was it's writing style. In contrast to many books on the subject, this one is written in a casual, almost conversational style that makes it so much easier to read and learn. This is one of the few books that has earned a spot on my bookshelf and will not be sold at the end of med school!

I think Acid - Base and Electrolytes is one of the most challenging topics in Medicine . During my second year in Med. School our Head of the Department of Nephrology, on the first day of the course said that if there is one book I would like you all to follow is Acid-Base , Fluids and electrolytes made ridiculously simple. After reading this book I will say that our chief was absolutely on the money . This is a Classic book , not only for medical students but also for residents. There are many different clinical cases and the explanation on each of the cases is great . I think the most important aspect of the book is that it is an easy read .

Although I've heard that Rose's essentials of renal pathophys is a much better book for really understanding how to do these problems, I think this 'made simple' book is a fast read that helps you make sure you understand key terms. Really worth buying, sharing, selling - though I'm going to keep my Rose for the wards along with a summary sheet from the made simple book.

Excellent book and every medical student should read this