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Ann Thorac Surg 2003;76:1342
© 2003 The Society of Thoracic Surgeons
Chicago, Illinois, USA
When the first edition of Thoracic Surgery was published in 1995, it quickly became a standard in the field. In the 8 years since then, much has changed in the landscape of general thoracic surgery. Video-assisted thoracic surgery is vital in the armamentarium of the thoracic surgeon, lung volume reduction is now an increasingly popular treatment for end-stage emphysema, positron emission tomography has come into common use as a diagnostic and staging tool, and interest in multimodality therapy for chest malignancies is increasing. The recently published second edition of this text encompasses all of these new topics.
For this text, two additional editors and more than 100 new authors were included. The lists read like a who's who in thoracic surgery in North America, with more than two dozen authors from Europe, Asia, and South America adding flavor to the mix. The format of the text is similar to that of the first edition. Internationally recognized experts provide new or updated chapters focused on well-defined topics in general thoracic surgery. Many chapters include key references as well as an extensive reference list for those who wish to do further reading. Most of the chapters are followed by a commentary by one of the editors that highlights a current controversy or illustrates ways in which the field may be changing in the near future. These invaluable commentaries help to personalize the topics and give greater depth and breadth to the presentations.
Some interesting choices were made. The senior editor's interest in the upper airway is evidenced by eight chapters on the subject. In contrast, all esophageal topics were included in a companion volume, presumably to interest general surgeons in its purchase. The focus of this edition is strictly clinical. There is less emphasis on physiology than in the prior edition, and an entire section from the first edition focusing on training, statistics, and research was omitted.
There are some important strengths to point out. In addition to the chapters on the upper airway, the section on surgical techniques for lung resection has been improved substantially. In addition, a chapter on the biology of lung cancer is now included. These revisions reflect substantial changes in the art and science of thoracic surgery.
There is little to quibble with in this extensive revision. The reference style, which includes author and year of publication parenthetically in the text, is cumbersome when large numbers of references are used. The quality of the illustrations is generally excellent, although the older radiographs suffer by comparison to the newer digital radiographs.
How does this text compare with others on the market? For the serious student of thoracic surgery, there is no question that a text devoted to the subspecialty, without including adult and congenital cardiac surgery topics, is most appropriate. It covers the material much more thoroughly than can be accomplished otherwise. Of the current texts devoted exclusively to general thoracic surgery, this book offers greater expertise and is more clinically oriented.
The second edition of Thoracic Surgery is substantially revised and improved. It is the quintessential reference for the practicing thoracic surgeon. For the prospective buyer who can afford only a single thoracic surgical text, this is the volume to have on your shelf.
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