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Color Anatomy and Kinesiology of the hand
BOOK
REVIEWS
Is it Moral to Modify Man? Edited by CLAUSEA. FRAZIER,M.D. First Edition. Pp. xxii -t 332 with g illustrations. (Springfield, Illinois: Charles C. Thomas, 1973.) Price $10.95. It is strange that under this title there is no discussion about cosmetic surgery. Indeed the title is only relevant to about half the book which is a patchwork of 19 contributions from departments of surgery, paediatrics, neurosurgery and psychiatry, social work services, the Christian Medical Society, a voluntary sterilisation association, a mental health institute and a theological seminary. The book is over long and would profit by shortening, but the best articles present a broad view of modern medical problems. They contain interesting comments on hippy societies and drug taking, the latter being a major cause of adolescent death in New York City in 1969, the effects of television viewing on children’s mental development and a classification of suicide, the tenth commonest cause of death in adults, the fourth in teenagers and the second in college students in the U.S.A. American doctors provide IOO suicides in a year. Key chapters include one by Christian Bernard on indications for heart transplant surgery, and problems of immunological typing. Another discusses birth control, comparing medical and operative techniques. Indications are marshalled for haemodialysis and kidney transplants, stressing the financial burden placed on the community in providing these expensive treatments. Living donor renal transplants transgress the basic concept of “first of all do no harm”,, though this may be offset by the donor’s psychological uplift in feeling that his sacrifice has increased his status. The use of cadaver material is restricted through the difficulty of judging the moment of death when independent life is no longer possible, but the required tissue has not yet undergone irreversible damage. Lung transplant results are poor; only one patient has survived IO months. Donated skin and lung excite violent reactions in the host whereas heart and kidneys being organs removed from noxious environments react less. Storing lung tissue is difficult as its delicate structure is intolerant of flushing its blood vessels with any kind of solution. The unreliability of human growth hormone in dwarfs is stressed and also the difficulty in obtaining 300 human pituitaries required to stimulate the growth of I young pituitary dwarf for I year. The most interesting contribution in the book is outside its title and concerns sport. There is brief mention of the use of drugs in obtaining extraordinary performances at the eventual expense of the athlete, and a frightening picture of the pressures placed in the U.S.A. on school children and college undergraduates in competitive sports. Sport is no longer a game played for fun but has been changed into “winism”, a word coined by the contributor for a concept of winning at all cost including illegal play and cheating, so long as it is not discovered. Some colleges have now stopped athletic scholarships and have resigned from competitive football. This book will not add to a plastic surgeon’s knowledge of his subject but it should give him a wider concept of today’s problems. R. C. BELL
Pp. vii Color Anatomy and Kinesiology of the Hand. By HOSEIN A. MOTAMED, M.D. by the author, Hosein A. + 145 with 126 illustrations. (Published and distributed Motamed, M.D., 7141, North Kedzie Avenue, No. 1504, Chicago, Illinois 60645, U.S.A.) Price $50.00. This book consists of a large number of photographs illustrating the anatomy of the forearm and hand, It is grouped into the standard anatomical divisions, Osteology, interspersed with text on the same subject. Arthrology, Myology, Neurovascular System, and Fasciae and Retinacula. There is also a chapter on Surface Anatomy, which is virtually entirely text. The text provides a standard anatomical description of the various structures, such as one would read in Gray’s “Anatomy”. The anatomical descriptions are on the whole unexceptionable, though the practising Hand Surgeon might quibble about certain statements concerning the nerve supply of the thenar musculature and, considering its relevance in the surgery of the hand, the fascia is inadequately described. The photographs are in colour and consist largely of dissected specimens, showing the anatomy layer by layer. As so often happens when photographed specimens are used for anatomical purposes, the detail is not really adequate for the purpose. In his preface the author makes the point that he is concerned with functional anatomy and makes mention of the anatomical lessons to be learned clinically and in the operating room. There is a striking gap between anatomists’ anatomy and surgeons’ anatomy and the anatomical approaches of the two disciplines, particularly in the hand, are very different. Indeed, this is an area in which the contributions of the surgeon have recently been much greater than those of the anatomist. Dr Motamed’s text is anatomists’ anatomy and this fact reduces the value of his book to the surgeon. At the sterling equivalent of 50 dollars, which is the cost of the book, a similar text is available in “Gray’s Anatomy” as part of a much larger book in which the illustrations, while less numerous, would if anything be more informative. I. A. MCGREGOR 299
REVIEWS
Is it Moral to Modify Man? Edited by CLAUSEA. FRAZIER,M.D. First Edition. Pp. xxii -t 332 with g illustrations. (Springfield, Illinois: Charles C. Thomas, 1973.) Price $10.95. It is strange that under this title there is no discussion about cosmetic surgery. Indeed the title is only relevant to about half the book which is a patchwork of 19 contributions from departments of surgery, paediatrics, neurosurgery and psychiatry, social work services, the Christian Medical Society, a voluntary sterilisation association, a mental health institute and a theological seminary. The book is over long and would profit by shortening, but the best articles present a broad view of modern medical problems. They contain interesting comments on hippy societies and drug taking, the latter being a major cause of adolescent death in New York City in 1969, the effects of television viewing on children’s mental development and a classification of suicide, the tenth commonest cause of death in adults, the fourth in teenagers and the second in college students in the U.S.A. American doctors provide IOO suicides in a year. Key chapters include one by Christian Bernard on indications for heart transplant surgery, and problems of immunological typing. Another discusses birth control, comparing medical and operative techniques. Indications are marshalled for haemodialysis and kidney transplants, stressing the financial burden placed on the community in providing these expensive treatments. Living donor renal transplants transgress the basic concept of “first of all do no harm”,, though this may be offset by the donor’s psychological uplift in feeling that his sacrifice has increased his status. The use of cadaver material is restricted through the difficulty of judging the moment of death when independent life is no longer possible, but the required tissue has not yet undergone irreversible damage. Lung transplant results are poor; only one patient has survived IO months. Donated skin and lung excite violent reactions in the host whereas heart and kidneys being organs removed from noxious environments react less. Storing lung tissue is difficult as its delicate structure is intolerant of flushing its blood vessels with any kind of solution. The unreliability of human growth hormone in dwarfs is stressed and also the difficulty in obtaining 300 human pituitaries required to stimulate the growth of I young pituitary dwarf for I year. The most interesting contribution in the book is outside its title and concerns sport. There is brief mention of the use of drugs in obtaining extraordinary performances at the eventual expense of the athlete, and a frightening picture of the pressures placed in the U.S.A. on school children and college undergraduates in competitive sports. Sport is no longer a game played for fun but has been changed into “winism”, a word coined by the contributor for a concept of winning at all cost including illegal play and cheating, so long as it is not discovered. Some colleges have now stopped athletic scholarships and have resigned from competitive football. This book will not add to a plastic surgeon’s knowledge of his subject but it should give him a wider concept of today’s problems. R. C. BELL
Pp. vii Color Anatomy and Kinesiology of the Hand. By HOSEIN A. MOTAMED, M.D. by the author, Hosein A. + 145 with 126 illustrations. (Published and distributed Motamed, M.D., 7141, North Kedzie Avenue, No. 1504, Chicago, Illinois 60645, U.S.A.) Price $50.00. This book consists of a large number of photographs illustrating the anatomy of the forearm and hand, It is grouped into the standard anatomical divisions, Osteology, interspersed with text on the same subject. Arthrology, Myology, Neurovascular System, and Fasciae and Retinacula. There is also a chapter on Surface Anatomy, which is virtually entirely text. The text provides a standard anatomical description of the various structures, such as one would read in Gray’s “Anatomy”. The anatomical descriptions are on the whole unexceptionable, though the practising Hand Surgeon might quibble about certain statements concerning the nerve supply of the thenar musculature and, considering its relevance in the surgery of the hand, the fascia is inadequately described. The photographs are in colour and consist largely of dissected specimens, showing the anatomy layer by layer. As so often happens when photographed specimens are used for anatomical purposes, the detail is not really adequate for the purpose. In his preface the author makes the point that he is concerned with functional anatomy and makes mention of the anatomical lessons to be learned clinically and in the operating room. There is a striking gap between anatomists’ anatomy and surgeons’ anatomy and the anatomical approaches of the two disciplines, particularly in the hand, are very different. Indeed, this is an area in which the contributions of the surgeon have recently been much greater than those of the anatomist. Dr Motamed’s text is anatomists’ anatomy and this fact reduces the value of his book to the surgeon. At the sterling equivalent of 50 dollars, which is the cost of the book, a similar text is available in “Gray’s Anatomy” as part of a much larger book in which the illustrations, while less numerous, would if anything be more informative. I. A. MCGREGOR 299