The Worldwide Anesthetist Acid-Base
Review by the "American Thoracic Society"
Summary: For certain concepts, this is the most readable of any of the websites listed in the review. Overall, perhaps has too much general chemistry for the average practitioner. Certainly it has a balanced approach including Stewart’s work.
This is another anesthesiology-based website that attempts to explain both the traditional approach to acid-base physiology and the “physico-chemical” Stewart approach with several excellent sections explaining how the traditional method may fall short and how to reconcile the two in everyday clinical practice. From the very beginning, the narrative style of the prose is readily accessible, and several easily digestible mnemonics and tables are littered throughout the text. There are sections that are very dense from a chemistry standpoint (this is noted prior to these sections) but for those looking for an extremely thorough scientific dissection of the concepts underlying acid-base physiology, these are a treasure. Featured within these sections are some well-done interactive Java applets which help to explain the points. Most interestingly, the last section, “Acid-Base Balance – Finding Common Ground,” provides a great one-page review of acid-base full of great memory tricks and interesting paradigms for structuring one’s thinking about acid-base.
Authority: The web administrator was emailed and the address was no longer in service. It is, however, evidence-based and well-referenced. Rating: 3
Currency: The discussion is about well-established topics, and as such, this website reflects current thinking about these subjects. Its last update was in 2003. Rating: 3
Accuracy: This site is accurate and holds to classical thinking about traditional acid-base analysis. Rating: 4
Navigation & Readability: The website has a main page with six links that should be followed chronologically, as they build on each other. Each link has a quick link back to the main page. Rating: 4
Utility: There are no case examples, but the depth of discussion of the chemistry background underlying our practice of acid-base medicine is impressive. Rating: 3