Practical Gastroenterology is a practical handbook aimed at the specialist trainee and new consultant in practice. Focusing primarily on day-to-day management issues, it is structured to reflect the way the problems present and are managed in the hospital, whether patients are seen as inpatients or outpatients, and a clinically-orientated approach prevails throughout. An introductory section provides a refresher course on the 'basics' as well as advice on how to deal with referrals and the most common emergencies. This is followed by condition-specific chapters split into the management of acute problems associated with inpatients and then a problem-based approach to the more chronic cases seen in outpatients. Finally, contraindications and complications of procedures and investigations are highlighted and the appendix contains useful information specifically for the trainee specialist in Europe.