Book excerpt: An easily accessible guide to diagnosing and managing critical situations, Emergencies in Gastroenterology and Hepatology aids doctors in dealing with acutely sick patients quickly and effectively. The book provides practical advice on how to make difficult decisions in an emergency situation. Areas covered include life and death emergencies, as well as the broad problems faced by on-call Gastroenterologists and Hepatologists on a daily basis. The focus throughout is on immediate management, but the book also includes reference to long term follow up for certain problems. Each chapter has an associated algorithm, which summarises the contents of the chapter, providing an aide memoir for the reader and facilitating learning, as well as being a quick reference tool. Bullet-point information for speed and clarity combined with the integral cross-referencing system, further enables quick access to the necessary information.