Book reviews

Ballistic Trauma: Clinical Relevance in Peace and War
Edited by JM Ryan, NM Rich, RF Dale, BT Morgans and CG Cooper

Testicular and Penile Cancer
Edited by Marc S Ernstoff, John A Heaney, Richard E Peschel

Surgical Management of Anorectal and Colonic Diseases 2nd edition
Edited by MC Marti and JC Givel

Instrumented Spinal Fusion: Principles and Technique
By J Harms and G Tabasso

Transplantation Pathology: A Guide for Practising Pathologists (Current Topics in Pathology series)
Edited by CL Berry

Emergency Abdominal Surgery 3rd edition
Edited by Peter F Jones, Zygmunt H Krukowski and George C Youngson

This book is timely in view of recent events in the Balkans. It is a multi-author text, which was originally intended as a single author successor to Owen-Smith’s ‘High Velocity Missile Wounds’. It was soon realised that the topic could no longer be undertaken by a single author, in part due to the large body of research now available, but also because of the increasing volume of ballistic trauma presenting in scenarios as diverse as war, humanitarian operations, terrorism and urban crime. Such wide-ranging issues required an international editorial group, with authors from the civil, military and humanitarian communities. The aim of this book is to inform and educate surgical trainees and established special-ists. It is also aimed at non-surgical health professionals with an interest in ballistic injury. The book has four sections. The first covers the science underpinning ballistic injury management. The second details the principles of management in general. This is followed by a section outlining regional management. The final section covers special topics, including combined injury, multi-system injury, and terrorism. The book is concise but comprehensive, and the text is clear and easy to read. The illustrations are good and include a central section of colour plates. However, some of the references are rather dated. Further, some important emerging concepts such as damage control surgery and permissive hypertension are only touched on. It is hoped that a second edition will allow more extensive discussion of these crucial topics. The book is essential reading for any medical professional interested in ballistic injury. It is, at the moment, the only single work encompassing the spectrum of penetrating and blast injury.

This well produced book has three editors and 23 contributors. Of the 169 pages, only the last 19 are devoted to penile cancer presumably on the basis of the relative disease incidences. The book is primarily targeted at urological oncologists, and surgeons may feel disappointed at the relative lack of surgical detail, especially in penile cancer. The surgical management of testicular cancer is well illustrated. Lymphadenectomy in penile cancer gets little discussion and there is no exposition of the value of VBM therapy (Vincristine, Bleomycin and Methotrexate). Organ sparing treatment is also given scant attention although laser therapy is mentioned briefly. The strength of the book is its first section, which is readable, clear and lucid. For a textbook, I feel the second section is too short, although admirably clear. The Vancouver system of referencing the chapters has not been used consistently, making it more difficult to obtain references. The relatively high price might make a urological oncologist prefer a more comprehensive treatise but a candidate for the FRCS (Urol) would enjoy the clear style, particularly of the first section.

This is the second edition of the Swiss “Goligher”. The two editors are internationally known in their specialty and the authorship is exclusively Swiss, which probably helps give the book a continuity of style and content. It is very well illustrated and exhaustively referenced. The treatment is thorough and detailed but perhaps too dense. For example, in the section on colorectal cancer, there are four pages of uninterrupted text, without headings. The sections on functional problems are excellent. The chapter on complications covers all complications of every operation, which is a good idea but makes for repetitive reading.There are a few notable omissions. In the section covering colonoscopy, there is little mention of polypectomy techniques, especially for larger polyps. The uses of MRI for assessment of fistula, emergency colorectal surgery of the problems specific to HIV positive patients are also omitted. There is a comprehensive text, which will appeal to specialists seeking a good summary or an alternative point of view. Overall, this book would be a valuable source of material for teachers in coloproctology.

Neil Mortensen, Department of Colorectal Surgery, The John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford, UK

In the last decade, surgeons have been offered an ever more impressive armoury of screw, rod and plate systems guaranteed to lend structural stability to the spine and indirectly aid spinal fusion. In many instances, however, emphasis in spinal texts has been placed on the clinical advantages of fixation, rather than on the principles underlying use of a given device. In this book, the authors have embarked on a different approach, explaining basic spinal biomechanics before detailing what they consider as optimal surgical techniques for given spinal problems. The first chapter is a concise, clearly illustrated, summary of the spinal load sharing principle, in which the ventral column is shown to resist compressive force and the posterior column act as a tension band. The ensuing chapters draw on the reader’s new knowledge to explain why, in each pathology, sound restoration of the anterior column is virtually always necessary in reconstruction. This book is very much a manual for regular users of inter-vertebral body cages. Clearly their techniques (as shown in the lavish number of case studies, illustrated with excellent photographs) will, when correctly applied, produce superb clinical results. No attempt is made to categorise criteria for surgery, compare other methods of treatment, or define long-term clinical outcomes. It has been assumed that the reader is familiar with all the anterior and posterior approaches to the spine and various methods of bone graft harvest and insertion. In consequence, although the first chapter should be read by every orthopaedic and neurosurgical trainee, the remainder of the text will only serve the experienced spinal surgeon. This book should certainly be available in the libraries of the regional spinal centres.

JNA Gibson, Spinal Unit, Princess Margaret Rose Orthopaedic Hospital, Edinburgh, UK

Transplantation Pathology: A Guide for Practising Pathologists (Current Topics in Pathology series)
Edited by CL Berry
Verlag Springer, Berlin 1999 (http://www.springer.de)
222pp, Ł96, ISBN 3540640967

This is a disappointing publication that purports to be a guide for practising pathologists and hence should contain considerable histopathological detail together with illustrative material. This it lacks; and, regrettably, errors are present in the legends and photographs. Since this is a multi-author production, it is unfair to give a universal condemnation, and the chapters will be referred to in sequence. The chapter on transplantation immunology is clear, relatively concise and well referenced. Similarly, the chapter on infections in solid organ transplant recipients provides an overview sub-divided according to the organ transplanted. This is of practical value to the pathologist, but thereafter the book should enlarge on histopathological features of the complications of transplantation; namely rejection, opportunistic infection, and neoplasia. In the renal chapters, there is no histological guide to the grading of rejection, nor are there histological illustrations. The chapter on the liver does have histological description and the illustrations are acceptable. However, there are disappointing editing errors. Bone marrow and blood stem transplantation is of considerable importance, but seldom involves the pathologist in histopathological marrow assessment. However, graft versus host disease is a histological challenge, and illustrations would have improved the otherwise adequate section in this chapter. The chapter on the pathology of heart transplantation is excellent, with good illustrations. The pathology of pulmonary transplantation can also be recommended. At present, transplantation in the nervous system is somewhat esoteric for the practising pathologist. The chapter is interesting but the illustrations are disappointing. The chief criticism of this book is the absence of a satisfactory chapter on renal transplant rejection. A second disappointment is the minimal reference made to the complicating squamous carcinomas of prolonged immuno-suppression. Both the cutaneous and anogenital lesions should be covered in both theoretical and histological detail.

In fact, a chapter combining the complications - opportunistic, viral infection and neoplasia - would be of both theoretical interest and practical value. If the book is to enter a second edition, this addition should be there. The third criticism is of faulty editing with mal-positioning of legends and typographical errors. The book could be recommended as a theoretical approach to transplantation and as a practical guide in the fields of liver, cardiac and lung transplantation, but not as a valuable aid to the pathologist assessing the renal biopsy performed for assessment of rejection.

It is frequently a feature of multi-author text that the objective of the book concerned becomes blurred and ill focused. It is a testament to the editors of and contributors to Emergency Abdominal Surgery that this is not the case with this wonderful volume. This book must represent a high point in the quality of surgical writing available to trainee and consultant surgeons today. The quality of the writing is of the highest standard, both in the use of simple, plain English, and the overall layout and organisation of the book. It makes for effortless reading, and the information absorbed from its pages is readily assimilated because each page represents the distilled concentrate of years of experience. Each page reflects common sense in management of surgical problems, dispensed in an authoritative manner by teachers of enormous experience. This must be one of the best textbooks on emergency abdominal surgery at the present time. It is the perfect complement to the shorter and more intense surgical training to which our junior surgeons are being subjected. It pays due regard to the importance of management, both pre- and postoperatively, of the surgical patient. There are some small criticisms. There is relative paucity of illustrations, and some of the line drawings could be improved. I believe that the text could have benefited from an increased number of photographs or diagrams illustrating radiological features, as well as colour plates displaying the findings of the various pathologies mentioned. The place of laparoscopy appears to have been under-played as an investigative procedure, and the suggestion that 5mm mini-laparoscopy should be carried out under local anaesthesia in the accident and emergency department seems totally at odds with the otherwise outstandingly common sense approach. Although liberally referenced, some of the references are not as up to date as one might expect. These minor criticism are, however, nothing compared with the enormity of achievement in producing such an outstanding volume. This book is easy to read, authoritative in its facts, liberally referenced and provides well-balanced discussion where appropriate. It is essential surgical literature for every general surgeon.

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