Ann Thorac Surg 1997;64:1498
© 1997 The Society of Thoracic Surgeons
Review of Recent Books
Review of Recent Book
Endosurgery
Robert M. Craig, MD
Edited by James Toouli, Dominique Gossot, and John G. Hunter New York, Churchill Livingstone, 1997 $245.00, 1,033 pp, illustrated ISBN: 0-443-07860-2
See also page 1495
The editors took on the ambitious task of a multiauthored text including all aspects of endoscopic surgery. These include endoscopy involving gastroenterology, general (gastrointestinal) surgery, thoracic surgery, otolaryngology, urology, pediatric surgery, and gynecology. The textbook's scope is too broad, and it will not be very popular for that reason. A gastrointestinal surgeon will want to obtain a text on laparoscopic diagnosis and treatment of gastrointestinal disorders, but will probably have little use for the urologic, gynecologic, and interventional endoscopic discussions. I predict that this will be the only edition of this book, because of the rapidly expanding fields of endosurgery, and that individual textbooks will be available for each discipline. Already, from my parochial view, I believe that the chapters on interventional endoscopy and endoscopic ultrasonography are not as thorough as students of these disciplines would require. In addition, the overall management of portal hypertension and bleeding esophageal varices was given a too abbreviated discussion, leaving out some important new aspects, such as the "six shooter" for variceal ligation.
That being said, I think that the chapters as a whole are extremely well written, by internationally known experts. The figures are excellent, especially describing surgical techniques. From the gastroenterologist's point of view, I found the endoscopic and endoscopic ultrasonographic photographs particularly good. The juxtaposition of chapters treating diseases by different techniques was likewise very well done. For example, the medical (pneumatic dilation), thoracic endosurgical, and laparoscopic approaches to achalasia were reported in consecutive chapters. The controversy regarding the proper use of endoscopic retrograde cholangiography with common bile duct stone extraction in patients undergoing laparoscopic cholecystectomy was likewise well developed. Although the overall sense of the discussions suggested that more laparoscopic and less endoscopic retrograde cholangiography should be performed, which is probably not appropriate for most centers, I believe the discussions were balanced, for the most part.
In summary, this textbook is very well written and edited, with chapters written by international experts in each field. The use of the book will be limited by its overly ambitious attempt to include all endosurgery, whereas each discipline would be best suited to have its own textbook.
Chicago, Illinois
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