Objective Anaesthesia Review: A Comprehensive Textbook for the Examinees was first published in 2009 with financial support from the Tata Memorial Center. The book became instantly popular and has been appreciated for the help it gives the examinees at a critical juncture in their career. The question-answer format of the book is easy-to-follow. The equipment and table viva topics are thoroughly discussed as well.

I am sure that by partnering with M/s Jaypee Brothers Medical Publishers (P) Ltd, New Delhi, India, the department has made sure of wider availability of the book across the country.

I wish both the book and the exam-going students a great success.

To fill this lacuna, the first Anaesthesia Review Course was held in 2004 by Department of Anaesthesiology, Critical Care and Pain, Tata Memorial Hospital, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. This course consisted of interactive case discussions with experienced teachers and hands-on workshops. The course was appreciated for pattern and content by the postgraduates and the faculty alike and it was deemed to be a resounding success. With the first course came the first workbook, this contained the cases written up by the faculty. The Anaesthesia Review Course has been held annually since then and every year there has been a workbook. However, there were several problems. Since we could only discuss only a few cases every year, each year's workbook contained only some cases. So the students had to obtain and go through multiple workbooks. The previous books were scarce, being printed in limited numbers. The equipment and other photographs were not great, being black and white and reproduced using offset print and photocopying. Many such and more complaints came from the anaesthesia postgraduates attending the course.

The idea thus germinated for this book. Why not write a book which shall contain all the cases and the entire range of anaesthesia equipment, and table viva topics such as ABGs, ECGs, PFTs, etc. normally encountered in the examination? This book, therefore, contains all these and more. There are color plates for the old as well as new equipment, which may not be available to all postgraduates.

All our colleagues worked hard for the first edition of the textbook, everybody contributing. Publishing books can be expensive however and we could not have published the first edition without the encouragement and sanction of funds by Dr RA Badwe, Director, Tata Memorial Center. Dr Raman Sareen, the head of our department then and Dr Sharma also encouraged us. Since then, we have published one reprint and second edition of this book. The problem with privately publishing books is the lack of wide availability. Last year M/s Jaypee Brothers Medical Publishers (P) Ltd, New Delhi, India, approached us for publication of the next edition of the book. You will find many of the chapters completely revamped. We have new chapters on Management of Acute Postoperative Pain and Videolaryngoscopes, something we will increasingly see being used in our operating rooms.

All our colleagues in the department worked hard and they have also often spared us from our clinical duties so we could work on the book and our sincere thanks to all of them. Mr Ramesh from M/s Jaypee Brothers Medical Publishers (P) Ltd, Mumbai Branch, has been remarkably patient with us, and we also thank him for a job well done. Our families have been particularly supportive while we labored for the sake of the book.

It is our heartfelt hope that the examinee really benefits from this book, and we wait eagerly for the feedback from those true and sincere critics, and the exam-going students. We welcome any suggestions and constructive criticism. It will only make the next edition better!