Cardiorespiratory Physiotherapy Adults & Paediatrics – 5 Edition

It has been a real privilege to be invited to co-edit the fifth edition of this core international cardiorespiratory textbook. It has always been an important text for undergraduate students around the world but is also an enduringly valuable reference text for both experienced and novice practitioners involved with cardiorespiratory care.

There have been some interesting and important advances in cardiorespiratory physiotherapy in the nine year since the first printing of the fourth edition, and we have tried hard to include as many of the new ideas and new pieces of evidence as possible. Having said that, we acknowledge without reserve that we ‘stand on the shoulders of giants,’ and many of the essential timeless features of the earlier editions remain intact.

Before we started, we asked clinical and university staff and students what they most wanted to see in this new edition and, as a result, we have made changes that we think will enhance the book. Some of the changes involved updating information or reorganizing where it is found in the text, and some are entirely new chapters. For example, the new first chapter is an overview of cardiorespiratory anatomy and physiology essentials, with wonderful new illustrations, which we hope will be an outstanding clinical reference. Similarly, the assessment chapter, now doubled in length, provides an expanded and structured systematic approach to clinical cardiorespiratory assessment. Other new chapters include two dedicated to cardiac and respiratory problems or pathology, an outcome measures chapter, a chapter on the principles of exercise and physical activity in cardiorespiratory populations and a chapter on cardiorespiratory rehabilitation pf special population, for example, children or those with obesity, cancer, liver disease or burns. Also new is the structure of the Physiotherapy Interventions chapter (previously Techniques), which is now problem-based rather than alphabetical, and which hopefully will facilitate a clearer clinical reasoning pathway for students or novice practitioners.