BOOK REVIEWS

HEAD AND NECK SURGERY. By P. M. STELL and A. G. D. MARAN. Second edition, pp. 443. (London : William Heinemann Medical Books Ltd.) Price EIO.OO.

This is the second edition of Stell and Maran’s excellent basic textbook on head and neck surgery. The text has been extensively revised and updated with the addition of a chapter on the nasopharynx. It is based on the combined personal experience of over 3,000 cases treated by the authors. The book is clearly aimed at junior trainees in otolaryngology, plastic surgery and general surgery with an interest in the head and neck. The book contains many clear, well labelled diagrams (as many as 4 diagrams on a spread of pages). The detailed text is concisely moulded around these diagrams making difficult concepts such as partial laryngectomy readily understandable. The operative detail is such that the text can be used by a junior to undertake the more common operations. The book is a handy size, clearly printed on non-reflected paper. In general the authors’ arguments and opinions are rather dogmatic and unadventurous but their advice is consistently sound and balanced.

The book is divided into z sections. The first I_CO pages is devoted to basic surgical principles. The second is devoted to detailed regional accounts. The first part might seem tedious to the practising surgeon but its caring approach to the patient and exposition of the principles of preoperative, operative, postoperative management and complications enables the reader to become quickly at home in his specialty. The section on reconstructive surgery is reasonably full and mentions axial flaps though the use of musculocutaneous and free flaps is not discussed.

The second section gives a detailed account of each region and, as such, acts both as a textbook and a reference book. Each chapter begins with the specific surgical anatomy and surgical pathology of the region. Diagrammatic representation of the presenting symptoms, incidence of disease, tumour types and survival rates makes an easy aide-m&mire for the student. Unusual and rare tumours are mentioned but given space appropriate to their clinical importance.

This is a sound up-to-date textbook which caters well for the needs of the new trainee and at ~~IO.OO is a good investment.

T. GIBSON

AESTHETIC SURGERY. Trouble-How to avoid it and how to treat it. Edited by Eugene H. Courtiss. First edition, pp. xiv+274, with 453 illustrations. (St Louis : The C. V. Mosby Company, 1978.)

This is an edited collection of papers read at the 10th Annual Meeting of the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery in 1977. Twenty papers from 24 distinguished authorities are recorded. Each has a brief introduction and a series of paragraphs headed “Trouble” which describe complications of patient selection and treatment. An editorial comment and useful list of references conclude each chapter.

Most categories of aesthetic surgery are included with chapters on malpractice, psychiatry and monitoring of local anaesthesia. Many complications are described briefly and their causes, avoidance and treatment tersely outlined, but in a slim volume much that could be said has been omitted. There is scant mention of the supra-tip hump following rhinoplasty and no mention of its multiple causes. The section on blepharoplasty excludes the d&culties which may lead to ectropion, but quotes the classic references discussing this subject.

Over 40 per cent of the book is occupied by illustrations whose reproduction is of such exceptionally poor quality that most do little to illuminate the text. Seventeen incomprehensible half-page cartoons mar the II pages of the first chapter. One fact which the illustrations demonstrate, but the text does not, is some patients’ satisfaction with a reversion to their original shape after an “unsatisfactory” first operation.

Most accounts are of methods of correcting deformity resulting from previous treatment at “St Elsewheres” , and none of the authors has been bold enough to describe difficulties he has himself experi- enced and learnt to avoid or remedy. Nevertheless, as claimed by Charles Horton in his Foreword, rhis book is “a treasure” to ethical surgeons and a warning to those who are not. It should be read and can be re-read with profit. It supplements, but does not complete R. M. Goldwyn’s “The Unfavourable Result in Plastic Surgery”, for which several of its contributors also wrote.

J. LENDRUM

EMBRYOGENESIS, DEVELOPMENT AND SOME ANOMALIES OF THE UPPER RESPIRATORY TRACT INCLUDING THE SEPTO-MAXILLARY SYNDROME AND ITS TREATMENT. By C. J. GRIFFIN and PHILOMENA MCGRATH. Pp. I 14 with 44 illustrations and 3 tables. (Sydney University Press.) Price E12.40.

This book is essentially a study of the development of the midface and nasopharynx with particular reference to nasal and oral structures. Particular attention is paid to the cranial base and nasal septum.

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