R. Lisak, D. Truong, W. Carroll, & R. Bhidayasiri, Singapore: Wiley-Blackwell, 2009, 695 pages, $209.95, ISBN: 1405157380.

Healthcare is becoming increasingly global. With air travel and the rising numbers of immigrants to the United States, neuroscience nurses will find their role expanding to include the care of patients with increasingly diverse neurological diseases. The United States is not always at the forefront of neurological research, so a text with contributors from the international community is of great benefit. The endorsement of this text by the World Federation of Neurology praises International Neurology: A Clinical Approach as a "textbook with true global authorship." This is borne out by the fact that this text includes 173 chapters written by 219 international authors.

The chapter on fibromyalgia, for instance, is written by Saeed Bohlega at the King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Center in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Of note is the fact that this disease has its highest incidence in Pakistan, Malaysia, Poland, and South Africa, not the United States, as one might assume. Nurses specializing in the care of patients with multiple sclerosis will be intrigued by the chapter that examines the geographic distribution and racial or ethnic differences throughout the world of this disease. A chapter on Restless Legs Syndrome is appropriately written by physicians from Buenos Aires, Argentina, as the South American prevalence ranges as high as 15% of the population, compared with 10% in Europe and North America.

This text is not only of interest to the nurse caring for adults; it is also invaluable to pediatric nurses. Many neurological diseases are genetically based. This contributes to the clusters of diseases in the diverse areas of the globe. Between 1989 and 2005, more than one quarter of a million children were adopted from outside the United States-a number that continues to grow dramatically and increases the likelihood that the nurse will care for a child with a rare disease. The chapter on oculopharyngeal muscular dystrophy discusses one such disease that is most common in the Bukhara Jews living in Israel (prevalence, 1:600). Another chapter discusses hereditary spastic paraplegia, an x-linked recessive disease, with a prevalence of 9.6:100,000 in Cambria, Spain. Also included are chapters on pediatric neurotransmitter diseases and neonatal neurology.

Concise yet comprehensive, a great deal of valuable information on more commonly encountered conditions, such as stroke, Parkinson disease, epilepsy, movement disorders, and traumatic brain injury, is also contained in the text, once again with an international perspective.

For the practicing nurse, the emphasis of the text on clinical neurology, not basic science, makes it very readable. Many of the chapters are short, two to five pages, with essential information regarding presenting symptoms, etiology, differential diagnosis, diagnostic tests, and treatment or management that will assist the nurse in providing comprehensive patient care. Helpful photos of magnetic resonance imaging and computed tomography scans clearly illustrate radiological evidence of disease pathology.

Neuroscience nurses welcome the challenge of caring for patients with a myriad of neurological disorders. International Neurology provides clear, concise, accurate, and comprehensive information in one volume. Taking an international approach will broaden the knowledge base and enhance the practice of any nurse caring for patients with a neurological disorder.

Reviewed by Marie Lasater, MSN RN CNRN CCRN, Nurse Specialist at the Ozarks Medical Center-Neuroscience Center, West Plains, MO.