BOOK REVIEWS
Regrettably there are many deficiencieselsewherein the book.The quality of reproduction of the photomicrographs is generally poor; this lessens the value of the many highly pictorial chapters, such as those on alcoholic liver disease, primary biliary cirrhosis and primary sclerosing cholangitis. Many of the chapters are merely superficial overviews of complex disorders, such as liver disease associated with pregnancy and liver disease in the pediatric age group. These chapters are not even graced by adequate bibliographies. On the other hand, the inclusion of separate chapters on ‘Histochemistry and Electron Microscopy in the Diagnostic Liver Biopsy’ by Toshikazu Uchida and Toshio Shikata, ‘Conditions Resembling Alcoholic Liver Disease’ by Gary C. Kanel, ‘Budd-Chiari Syndrome and Veno-occlusive Disease’ by Ian W. Simson and ‘Noncirrhotic Portal Hypertension’ by Masao Omata to some extent compensates for the deficiencies. Pathologists with a special interest in liver disease will no doubt find that this small book complements the numerous, larger texts on liver pathology, but pathologists requiring a single, comprehensive tome are advised to look elsewhere. Pauline Hall
AND J. W. Oral Pathology and Diagnosis. Edited by R . A. CAWSON EVESON. Cower Medical Publishing, London, New York, 1987. ISBN 0-443-00000-7, pp. vii + 314, illustrated. $225.00. This book is sub-titled “Colour atlas with integrated text”. The text is fuller than most atlases. The illustrations are excellent and include almost as many clinical photographs as photomicrographs. Most of the photomicrographs are accompanied by explanatory line drawings. The lay-out is excellent and one rarely has to turn a page to refer from text to the relevant illustration. Page numbering restarts with each chapter so that p. 10.15, for example, means the 15th page of chapter 10. This system facilitates finding one’s way around the book. There are 314 pages of text altogether. This is a chapter on normal structure of oral tissues and the other 17 chapters cover all aspects of oral disease including inflammatory disease of the mouth and salivary glands and tumours of all relevant tissues. Syndromes which have an oral component are well covered. The authors may have tried to include too much in the limited space. Lesions which rarely, if ever, involve the oral mucosa, such as dermatitis herpetiformis and basal cell carcinoma, might, one feels, have been omitted. In some areas, one feels that the authors may have gone beyond their experience, particularly in the field of soft tissue sarcomas, few of which are relevant to oral pathology. The authors misrepresent the authority they quote on polymorphous low grade adenocarcinoma of minor salivary glands. These defects in this book prevent one from placing total reliance on it but it should neverthelessbe welcomed by pathologists as an elegant account of an aspect of pathology which is often not found in standard texts of surgical pathology. P, Ironside
Intraoperative Pathologic Diagnosis: Frozen Section and Other AND B. BALFOUR KRAEMER. Techniques. Edited by ELVIOG. SILVA Williams & Wilkins, Baltimore, London, Los Angeles, Sydney, 1987. ISBN 0-683-0771 1-2, pp. xiv + 312, illustrated. $173.00. The frozen section laboratory at the M. D. Anderson Hospital and Tumor Institute processes an average of 75 frozen sections a day. This large experience forms the basis of most of Silva and Kraemer’s book, which is designed for use at the time of frozen section. As such, it is probably the best text so far available. There are chapters by Silva on preparation of sections, breast, gynecology, genitourinary tract, neuroendocrine tumours, bone, radiation injured tissues, skin and soft tissue; those by Kraemer are on thyroid, lung, mediastinum, parathyroid and lymph nodes. The authors have also enlisted the help of the present
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or former M. D. Anderson staff members Luis Guarda, who writes on the gastrointestinal tract, pancreas and liver, and John Batsakis for the section on head and neck. Bernd Scheithauer from the Mayo Clinic offers a chapter on the central nervous system and pituitary. It is obviously impossible to describe all of diagnostic surgical pathology in 312 pages so the authors have concentrated on the common lesions seen at frozen section and those conditions which are particularly likely to cause diagnostic difficulties. The illustrations are of high quality, although many seem to have been prepared from paraffin rather than from frozen sections. There is some mention of other intraoperative techniques, including intraoperative aspiration cytology. In my opinion, the authors do not adequately stress the dangers of telephone communication of frozen section results, the importance of face-to-face communication with the surgeon and the desirability of locating the frozen section laboratory in close proximity to the operating suite. Despite this omission, the book is a good one. The opening chapter on preparing and evaluating frozen tissue sections is most informative and the references are fairly comprehensive. The chapter by Scheithauer on the central nervous system and pituitary is particularly good. I believe this text should be available as a bench book in all frozen section laboratories. P. W. Allen
Pediatric Surgical Pathology. Edited by LOUISP. DEHNER. Williams
& Wilkins, Baltimore, 1987. ISBN 0-683-02425-6,pp. vii + 1121, illus-
trated. $429.00. This goldmine still contains gold. It is a veritable treasure trove of recent references for the pediatric pathologist, the pediatric surgeon, the general pathologist who receives some pediatric specimens, and all their trainees. Each chapter contains 151-1724(average 888) numbered references cited in the text, and an additional average of 200 more recent uncited references under broad topic headings. This heavy, small print volume includes mention of almost every condition which may be encountered in surgical pathology of children and adolescents, and a few not yet reported in childhood such as Merkel cell tumour, so that it will be the exceptional pediatric pathologist who cannot find some condition in it with which he was unfamiliar. The new edition contains welcome expansion of sections on medical conditions such as seen in gastric and jejunal suction biopsies and needle biopsies of liver, and comprehensive updates on pediatric tumours and anomalies of chest wall, lungs, mediastinum, soft tissues and bone. Rather than a purely didactic approach, it is good to see recognition of difficult areas such as distinguishing thymic dysplasia from severe secondary thymic atrophy (“involution”). All chapters make abundant use of macroscopic and microscopic pictures, many excellent and a few just adequate, and there is judicious use of clear radiographs and pertinent electron micrographs. This edition maintains the use o’f tables, e.g., those indicating the incidence in multiple large series of various pediatric neoplasms such as ocular and orbital tumours, head and neck tumours, cardiac, hepatic, CNS, bone and gonadal tumours in childhood. Others tabulate such conditions as hepatic findings in storage diseases, or list types or causes of, e.g., intersexes and mixed gonadal dysgenesis, adrenal enzymatic deficiencies, or genetically determined pigmentary disorders. The index is accurate and adequate for the pediatric pathologist, but may prove exasperating for the resident not knowing many synonyms. For instance, Vitelline duct remnant is not listed but may be found on the page given for Omphalomesenteric duct and Umbilical polyp, Epignathus on the page for Hairy polyp and Teratoid polyp, and Carnitine deficiency is indexed under S for Systemic carnitine deficiency. It is all there somewhere. Anyone can find something to quibble about in any textbook. Here one could question the emphasis in various places, such as the long paragraph given to inverted papilloma of the bladder, virtually unknown under 20 years of age, compared with the lesser space given to