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Book Reviews
Due to the large number of books we receive and review at The Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery we are only able to publish a select few in the Journal itself. Book Reviews which we have been unable to publish in the Journal can be found below.
The Crucial Principles of Care of the Knee.
The Crucial Principles of Care of the Knee.
J. A. Feagin Jr and J.R. Steadman Drs Feagin and Steadman are two of the fathers of Knee Surgery in the USA, with a wealth of experience, and much clout, both in North America and internationally. This is a relatively short text (260 pages) on several aspects of management in general, with emphasis on athletic problems. The organisation of the book reflects the interests of the two editors and ranges from human to animal knee, with a delightful short chapter on the horse-human relationship. Although many of the concepts are ‘surgical’, the chapter on the ‘Envelope of Function’ is essential. I strongly recommend that trainees should also read the original work by Scott Dye on this topic to understand a bit more about joint homeostasis, and how it can be affected by injury.
The technical aspects of anterior cruciate ligament surgery are briefly described, focussing on the use of the patellar tendon, bone graft, with a somewhat dated, two incision technique. This is a favourite of Dr Steadman, but it was curious to note so little mention of the single versus double bundle debate. Dr Steadman states that ‘more than 30 years of experience and 1800 reconstructions have led to a repeatable technique with predictable outcome’. How many of the more ‘modern’ surgeons will be able to say this of their ever changing techniques? Nevertheless, single incision arthroscopic techniques are commonplace, and hamstring grafts are used at least as often as the patellar tendon, bone graft.
There are several North American peculiarities. In Europe, few would use purely arthroscopic techniques for the management of osteoarthritis, but in the US the randomised, controlled trial published in the North England Journal of Medicine a few years ago initiated a fierce debate, of corporation zeal and flavour. The chapter on this topic is instructive, but I doubt that on this side of the pond it will have much impact on practice.
The book has several areas in which European contributions are ignored. For example, in the imaging chapter, the tendinosis paradigm is still embraced, though it has been at least a decade since the ‘tendinopathy’ terminology has been adopted. In the field of rehabilitation, the original studies on the efficacy of proprioception training for the prevention of ACL injuries, have been challenged, but it is good to know what can be done in this field.
I judge this to be, a good book for trainees if a bit too North American. Illustration is crystal clear but perhaps it is too basic for the specialist knee surgeon.
Professor Nicola Maffulli
Rotator Cuff deficiency of the Shoulder.
Ed. Mark Frankle. Is it ever acceptable for a critic to say that the book that they have been asked to review was a disappointment? Probably not. Most would just dismiss with faint praise, but this book presents a problem. The list of authors is a constellation of superstars with contributions from Drs Rockwood, Bigliani, Dines, Basamania, Cofield and Esch from the United States and Drs Seebauer, Boileau and Walch from Europe. I count seven Professors, three assistant Professors, four Presidents of ASES and one President of SECEC, as well as a host of up and coming shoulder surgeons; and yet this book fails to hit the spot.
It is said that an expert is someone who knows more and more about less and less until he knows everything about nothing. That is not to dismiss the massive cuff tear; far from it, for a massive cuff tear will affect 2% of the population and it will blight their lives. However two thirds of this book is about shoulder replacement for massive cuff tears, and here we run into trouble. Standard shoulder replacement does not work for cuff tear arthropathy, and this book springs from the success of the Delta reverse polarity replacement invented by Professor Paul Grammont, a highly innovative French surgeon. So here we have an American book made possible by a French invention. As you might expect the pearls would be the two chapters written by the two French contributors Dr Gilles Walch from Lyons and Professor Pascal Boileau from Nice, and indeed these two chapters are superb. Anybody interested in this subject will already have read them already, for they are based on articles previously written by these two authors and published as an Instructional Course in the JBJS, and an original paper in the JBJS. These two original papers have been brought up to date and fleshed out with more outcome results, but those of us with a burning passion to learn about reverse polarity replacement will learn little more than they absorbed from those two brilliant originals.
The American contribution has to play a reluctant second fiddle because the “FDA” have only just passed the Grammont concept and allowed its introduction into the States, so no American surgeon has anything like the European experience. The chapters on hemiarthroplasty are somewhat historic; no one would use a standard head hemiarthroplasty in a patient with cuff tear arthropathy. What of the new CTA extended head arthroplasty? This may have a place in the treatment of Seebauer type I CTA and there is a chapter on this concept, but it is mainly a technical “How to do” chapter with the two year follow-up results given in three brief sentences. There has been one American reverse polarity replacement used for some time in Florida, and this is the chapter around which the whole book pivots, but this chapter is a series of laboratory experiments fused together into a very scientific sounding chapter from which we can take away few clinical lessons.
The book is padded out by contributions on the pathology of cuff tear, a classification of cuff tears and a superb chapter by Dr Esch about arthroscopic repair that seems to come from a book on arthroscopy that has somehow jumped out of that book and into this. The final chapter allows discussion into future possibilities in tissue engineering for rotator cuff tears.
We are left with a well produced book, with a famous list of authors, of considerable value to young aspiring surgeons, particularly in the States who have no history of the Grammont prosthesis, but there is a sense of “déjà vu” for those with significant experience of massive rotator cuff tear arthropathy.
Mr Tim Bunker
Review of Orthopaedic Surgical Approaches
Mark D. Miller, A. Bobby Chhabra, Shepard Hurwitz, William Ihalko, Frances H. Shen At a time when the teaching of anatomy in the United Kingdom is at a low point, an anatomical atlas of surgical approaches is a welcome contribution to surgical training. Nothing is taken for granted in this well made book; there is even a picture of the skeleton with all the bones named. The approaches are covered regionally in a uniform manner to include the gross anatomy, cross-sections, topographical landmarks and hazards. This pattern of presentation, with excellent colour illustrations and operative photographs, is coupled with a compact disc describing each relevant surgical incision on a cadaver, so that the stages of the approach are made transparently clear.
There are five editors and numerous contributors. I have only minor criticisms. Although there are descriptions of the portals used for arthroscopy of the shoulder, elbow, wrist and knee- there is nothing on the ankle, a joint nowadays commonly scoped. As a colleague of the late Geoffrey Osborne, the misspelling of his name in the section on decompression of the ulnar nerve is uncomfortable, as is the description “ligament” instead of fascial band, for the tissue between the two heads of flexor carpi ulnaris.
If one does not make a precise and appropriate incision for a surgical procedure, surgery can be made unpleasantly difficult; but this book if consulted in advance, will certainly help avoid elementary errors in preoperative planning.
Professor Leslie Klenerman
Principles of Cartilage Repair
Christoph Erggelet, Bert R. Mandelbaum This is a short, copiously illustrated text addressing the basic problems related to articular cartilage, with chapters covering biology, diagnostic tests and the nonoperative and operative principles of treating lesions of joint surfaces. Pictures include line drawings and operative photomicrographs which compliment and expand the points in the body of the text.
Useful inclusions relate to analytical methods of classification and clinical scoring systems for the evaluation of results ( ICRS, KOOS, modified Cincinnati, Lysholm, Tegner and Freiburg ankle score)
A comprehensive additional reading list is included although specific references in the body of the text – or at the end of each chapter – might be preferred.
The aim of the book – to provide insight into current treatment options, to explain the principles and to identify the patients for whom they might be applicable – seem to have been achieved. As an introductory text on the subject of articular cartilage lesions and their management, the book is to be recommended. It is written with clarity and logic, albeit in a slightly didactic style. Expert readers will be left wanting more detail and newer concepts. The brevity of some of the sections is frustrating but for the inexperienced this book may excite an interest in an area of reconstructive surgery which commonly lacks both evidence of surgical success and new modes of management.
Mr Dominic Spicer
Curbside Consultation of the ACL
Edited by B. R. Bach Jr and N.N. Verma This book is one of a series of "Curbside Consultations". The concept is to pose and answer questions related to current practice in a concise manner. There are 49 questions and answers in this book with one or two authors for each. Inevitably the opinions given are those of the individual authors and the brevity of each contribution (as little as just over one page in some instances) means that each subject is dealt with in a superficial way. With such a relatively large number of contributions the standard is inevitably variable. All the authors are from the United States, none from Europe or elsewhere. As a practising surgeon I did not find much useful new information here. Possibly it might be of value to senior trainees or inexperienced consultants; it does at least provide a list of current debatable issues.
Mr Robin Allum
Musculoskeletal Tissue Regeneration
Edited by William S. Pietrzak This is a very topical subject in orthopaedics and musculoskeletal science. Much research endeavour is devoted to the possibility of regenerating musculoskeletal tissue in the treatment of arthritis, osteoarthritis and related disorders. This comprehensively edited text from experts in the area, covers both background information into the biology of musculoskeletal conditions and fracture repair, and techniques which may be used both for bone and soft tissue. There is also a section on general approaches such as the use of tissue adhesives, platelet-rich plasma and gene therapy. The text is well written and is certainly thought-provoking for people researching in this area, perhaps more so for musculoskeletal researchers than for practising clinicians. It should certainly occupy the shelves of libraries with vigorous academic departments.
Professor Andrew Carr
Instructional Course Lectures: Volume 57
Paul J. Duwelius The current volume consists of 57 chapters, 745 pages, and a DVD. It is not and does not set out to be an exhaustive text of orthopaedics. It does, however, make use of the expert faculty assembled for the Annual meeting of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons and presents lectures that have been deemed excellent by course attendees. There are 164 contributors, mainly from America with five from Canada, nine from Europe and one from Brazil. They present timely topic updates.
The text is organised into 11 sections, covering Trauma, Upper Limb, Lower Limb, Spine, Paediatrics, Sports Medicine, Orthopaedic Medicine and Practice Management. The last section deals with how to develop an orthopaedic practice, and the pitfalls in developing a modern electronic office. The format is consistent, with an initial abstract followed by short subtitled paragraphs. Throughout the book there are tables and illustrations, including diagrams and photographs; although these are black and white, they are of high quality. This volume continues to be a useful text giving a selection of updates across a wide variety of topics with relevance to both training grades and established clinicians
Mr Alistair Mountain
Concise Guide To Sports Injuries. Second ed.
Malcolm T. F. Read Orthopaedics and Sports Medicine are overlapping specialties, and this book provides valuable information for surgeons. The first 280 pages consider sports pathology, with each chapter covering topics for the various anatomical regions. Good writing, informative illustrations and line drawings make for interesting and speedy reading. Each pathological entity is divided into separate paragraphs, to cover findings, investigations and treatment. Highlighted text and easy-to-read formats, although occasionally oversimplified, are very useful.
The book’s strength lies in its consistency, an advantage of being written by a single, experienced physician in sports medicine. Much of the text is not referenced, seemingly stemming from personal experience with athletes, but adequate references are available at the end of each chapter, either from papers or textbooks. Valuable advice is also given regarding the timing of an athlete’s return to sport for each particular injury as well as the type of sport in which the injury was sustained. This is information with which orthopaedic surgeons may not be familiar, but I was disappointed not it find any comment on femoroacetabular impingement in the “Groin” chapter, a subject of growing interest over the last few years, and frequently found in athletes.
The chapter on “Rehabilitation and training with an injury” is dedicated to specific forms of exercise. In these days of sport for all, and of sport participation to a greater age and intensity, patients expect detailed instruction about training, prophylactic strapping, etc. The chapter on “Team Doctoring” is addressed to someone unfamiliar with sports medicine and contains much information that a doctor should take into consideration when treating athletes. The final chapter, the “Glossary”, contains useful esoteric terms.
In conclusion, we believe this is an excellent book for the reader who wants to be up-to-date with sports injuries. We would recommend it to orthopaedic surgeons who deal with this sometimes complex and challenging area of musculoskeletal practice.
Mr Alexandros Tzaveas
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