Spinal Cord Medicine, 4th Edition Doody's Expert Review Review Questionnaire ISBN: 9780826139481 ISBN-10: 0826139485 Copyright: 2026 Edition: 4th Editor: Kirshblum, Steven, Lin, Vernon W., Doody's Expert Review    Score: 95 Doody's Star Rating™ and Doody's Expert Review provide by Doody Enterprises, Inc. Reviewer: Joshua  Wilson ,  MD, PTA   (Shirley Ryan AbilityLab) Description The book provides a comprehensive review of the history, classification, and medical management of individuals with spinal cord injury (SCI) for medical care providers and trainees. For each topic it provides a thorough review of background information including excellent anatomy reviews. Chapters are well-organized in a manner that is easy to follow. Purpose The book aims to be comprehensive text reviewing the field of spinal cord injury medicine for practitioners, researchers, and trainees. It meets these goals in a clear, organized manner. In areas of medicine that are not well established it provides an excellent summary of the supporting or refuting evidence for specific interventions allowing the audience to make more informed care decisions. Audience The book includes most topics needed by medical providers and trainees to care for their spinal cord injury patients from emergency to long term care. It includes an appropriate amount of detail regarding preliminary research to give researchers the starting point for their investigations. The authors and many of the contributors are well known in their field with years of clinical experience. With that said, the book leans strongly on evidence-based medicine and is clear when a single optimal medical approach is available requiring shared decision making between patients and providers. Features The book has 48 chapters, broken into seven sections covering the history and classification of SCI, acute care of SCI, long term SCI medical care with a section devoted to neurological and musculoskeletal care, non-traumatic spinal cord injury, spinal cord rehabilitation, and specialized topics. It has a well-organized table of contents that may be hard to read as the page numbers are not right justified. Illustrations throughout the text are large and organized for ease of reviewing, but not at the expense of the flow of text on the page. Photos are in color with good contrast; this is particularly important in the wound care section. References are available online and at the end of each chapter there are many suggested readings to support further inquiry. The book ends with an index that also includes acronyms to avoid difficulty searching the text. Assessment The book meets its goal as a comprehensive review of this field of medicine and provides a starting point to researchers with clinical inquiries. The field of spinal cord injury medicine continues to change with new medications and stimulators and therefore the new edition is necessary. I recommend this book to medical providers involved in the care of spinal cord injuries, as well as trainees wishing to have comprehensive understanding of that care. While this text can be used as a reference for specific clinical questions, its true value is in its thorough review of topics. Review Questionnaire Range Question Score 1-10 Are the author's objectives met? 10 1-10 Rate the worthiness of those objectives. 10 1-5 Is this written at an appropriate level? 5 1-5 Is there significant duplication? (1=significant, 5=insignificant) 4 1-5 Are there significant omissions? (1=significant, 5=insignificant) 5 1-5 Rate the authority of the authors. 5 1-5 Are there sufficient illustrations? 5 1-5 Rate the pedagogic value of the illustrations. 4 1-5 Rate the print quality of the illustrations. 5 1-5 Are there sufficient references? 5 1-5 Rate the currency of the references. 4 1-5 Rate the pertinence of the references. 5 1-5 Rate the helpfulness of the index. 5 1-5 If important in this specialty, rate the physical appearance of the book N/A 1-10 Is this a worthwhile contribution to the field? 10 1-10 If this is a 2nd or later edition, is this new edition needed? 8 ©2026 Doody Enterprises, Inc.