Ocular pathology: A text and atlas, third edition

Ocular pathology: A text and atlas, third edition

SURVEY OF OPHTHALMOLOGY BOOK VOLUME 35. NUMBER I . JULY-AUGUST 1990 REVIEWS STEVEN Ocular Pathology: A Text and Atlas, Third Edition, by Myron Ya...

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SURVEY OF OPHTHALMOLOGY

BOOK

VOLUME 35. NUMBER I . JULY-AUGUST 1990

REVIEWS

STEVEN

Ocular Pathology: A Text and Atlas, Third Edition, by Myron Yanoff, M.D. and Ben S. Fine, M.D., Philadelphia, J.B. Li$.$incott, 1989, 737 pp., illus. Price: $95.00 There have been very few textbooks in ophthalmology published over the last 25 years which truly warrant the word “classic.” If any book deserves the accolade it is Orulal- Pathology by Yanoff and Fine. It is one that countless residents have read since the first edition was published in 1975 (and 10 pages longer!). The first edition may even some day be a collector’s item on a par with Herbert Parsons’ great four volume Pathology of the Eye, written at the turn of the century. Reading any textbook from cover to cover is no easy task, but I did in order to compare the new with the old. There are many obvious changes: the line drawings are clearer; the tables are more numerous and better and the photographs are, as always, superb, particularly the electron micrographs (a trademark of Ben Fine). The book is, once again broken down into 18 chapters along the same lines as the first two editions. The introductory chapter on basic principles of pathology is clear and concise. The second chapter covering congenital anomalies, a favored subject of Myron Yanoff, is quite comprehensive. The chapters on inflammatory disease and tumors are excellent. The following chapters cover regional pathology from the eyelid to the orbit. The last four chapters cover special subjects that either do not fit into the regional rubric or are better covered separately. They are diabetes mellitus, glaucoma, ocular melanotic tumors and retinoblastomas and pseudogliomas. In covering malignant melanoma of the choroid and ciliary body, the subject is dealt with in a straight-forward matter. Controversial material regarding outcomes related to therapy is only briefly dealt with. In the section on retinoblastomas the relationship between esterase D and retinoblastoma is not mentioned. AIDS is mentioned only briefly. The bibliography at the end of each chapter continues to be divided into categories mirroring the organization of the chapter. Many new and up-todate references have been added while some older ones deleted. One minor problem is with the index. Nowhere could “cytomegalic inclusion disease” or

M. PODOS,

EDITOR

“cytomegalovirus” be found except as an entry under retinitis. This is, of course, minor (although having dealt with the first two editions, I may be better prepared to use the index). No color photographs are included as these can be found in the companion volume, Oc~lnr Pnthology: A Color 14tlns, published as a separate volume. The two books do complement each other and should be purchased as a package. This book is an item l.hat every ophthalmology resident should obtain. It is also a wonderful text to use as an aid for board and OKAP review as the clinical material covered in each section is clear, concise and current. AL.W H. FKIIWM.\N,M.D. NEW YOKR. NW YOKK

Inherited Retinal Diseases: A Diagnostic Guide, by Juan M. Jimenez-Sierra, Thomas E. Ogden, and Gretchen B. Van Boemel, St. Louis, C.V. Mosby, 1989, 289 pp., illus. Price: $85.00 At a recent national meeting, there was a poster by a well-known retinal specialist, which reviewed six cases of hereditary vitreo-retinal degeneration accumulated over three decades. I remarked to the author that I greatly appreciated his presentation, as I had for many years been somewhat confused as to the findings in this group of diseases. He told me that he too remained unsure of the scope of these diagnoses - which made me feel much better. Apparently, the numerous and rare hereditary degenerative diseases of the retina occasionally perplex clinicians at all levels of experience. All of us who diagnose degenerative diseases of the retina and its supporting tissues will thus welcome this volume, by three staff members (one a former Fellow) of the Electrophysiology Laboratory at the Doheny Eye Institute in Los Angeles. This handy book is meant to serve as a practical manual for clinical diagnosis, rather than a comprehensive textbook of degenerative retinal disease. It largely succeeds at complementing the more discursive tomes, with tabular information and reference photographs, presented in convenient parallel format for the entire range of