Surgical treatment of the epilepsies—Second edition

Surgical treatment of the epilepsies—Second edition

279 ELSEVIER BOOK REVIEWS Neurosurgical Anatomy of the Brain-A Stereo Atlas. By Gary Kraus and Gregory Bailey. 249 pages. $ 2 2 5 . 0 0 Baltimore, M...

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279 ELSEVIER

BOOK REVIEWS

Neurosurgical Anatomy of the Brain-A Stereo Atlas. By Gary Kraus and Gregory Bailey. 249 pages. $ 2 2 5 . 0 0 Baltimore, Maryland: W i l l i a m s & W i l k i n s , 1994 ISBN 0 - 6 8 3 - 0 4 7 8 0 - 9 . This 240-page volume was published as a result of an extensive amount of work done by these two authors and various associates. They worked at the St. Louis University under Dr. Kenneth Smith and with the help of many others. This represents a great effort on the part of these people, and they have attempted to publish a volume that will be of help to residents in their neurosurgical training, those with more experience who may review and reinforce their knowledge of surgical anatomy, neurosurgeons who explore certain regions of the brain infrequently and may review and refamiliarize themselves prior to surgery, and others may be stimulated to produce future atlases in stereo. The authors give full recognition to atlantes previously published. These are primarily cadaver dissections with a few sketches and a few actual operative photographs, all black and white. Some of the photographs are in poor focus and if they were not carefully labeled it would be difficult to tell what one was visualizing. A Zeiss microscope was used, and a beam splitter diverted a stereo pair of images into a Contax camera back. Ektachrome 160 tungsten film was used for the slides. Much effort was expended in making and maintaining continuity so that if a right pterional approach was started in a preserved specimen, the same exposure was maintained for all the subsequent and progressively dissected views. Through no fault of the authors, this book of black and white photographs arrived without any of the color prints or the stereoscopic viewer and there is nothing in the front portion of the book to indicate that there are supposed to be accompanying slides. This, of course, is an unusual occurrence but after some delay, the publisher did send these for review. These are not attached in the back of the book or to the book as in some other atlantes, and one can easily visualize a resident or a practicing neurosurgeon or a medical student looking at these photographs, being called to the operating room or the emergency room and leaving the box and the book lying on the table. These can easily become separated and this might be considered a potential hazard to the future usefulness of this atlas. The photographs are generally of good quality, not in any way superior to those that have been seen frequently over the last 8 or 10 years, and those of the surface such as the "pterional approach" and the photograph of the subtemporal opening are really of little value. The sharply imprinted memory in the mind of a neurosur© 1994 by Elsevier Science Inc.

geon who has visualized at the operating table a stereoscopic view of the optic chiasm, the cerebellar pontine angle, or any part of the central nervous system, is superior to the photographs shown here, but as the authors indicate, possibly those who want to get a better look at some part of the brain in which they are going to operate may come back to utilize this area. This was studied fairly extensively by several of the neurosurgical residents at Wake Forest University Medical School and Dr. Evan Carratt, in particular, gave it a good deal of attention and has been a part of this review process. It is his opinion that in view of the other teaching aides that are available to the residents and students, this particular atlas would not be considered a necessity for the library. Nevertheless, many people who are learning techniques of neurosurgery will profit by viewing this atlas with the slides and viewer and can be assured it is of high quality. This would, in particular, apply to medical students assigned to a neurosurgical service rotation. EBEN ALEXANDER, Jr., M.D. Winston-Salem, North Carolina

Surgical Treatment of the Epilepsies--Second Edition Edited by J e r o m e Engel, Jr. 816 pages. $135.00. N e w York, NY: Raven Press, 1993. ISBN 0-88167-988-7. The text is based on the Second Palm Desert International Conference held in Indian Wells, California, in February 1992. At the first Palm Desert conference in 1986 there were over 50 participating centers. Since 1986 there has been an explosion of interest in epilepsy surgery. This has been accompanied by a significant expansion of epilepsy surgery centers worldwide with 118 epilepsy surgery centers from over 20 countries participating in the 1992 conference. Since the first edition, the book has grown in size, but not due to the increased number of centers or lack of consensus. The increase in size, I believe, reflects the progress and maturity of the science. The book is dedicated to Wilder Penfield and begins with a historical review of his contribution to the field. The text is then divided into five major sections--identification of surgical candidates, noninvasive preoperative evaluation, invasive preoperative evaluation, surgical treatment, and postoperative follow-up. In the first section there are chapters on epilepsy as chronic sickness, defining who is a surgical candidate, and an extensive review of the epilepsy syndromes remedial to sur0090-3019/94/$7.00

gery.

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poral,

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show

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problems.

out-

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information,

of

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to fill in omitted

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has a wealth

preoperatively outcome

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was disappointing-lacking

discussion

opinion

are

discussion.

not

first

author

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different

this over,

five other

opinions

initials

in parentheses.

arterial

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in chapter

differences

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my own practice.

of

glossed

are significance

evaluation

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aspect

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are

(Wada)

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final section quality

of reoperation. through

no fault

postoperative section

allowed

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diate postoperative appendix

presurgical good

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contributors marked

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authors’

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evaluation

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sive

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to read, and contains

epilepsy

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for

WILLIAM

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patients.

L. BELL,

Winston-Salem,

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of an epilepsy

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maintains surgery.

current

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Carolina

its

place

for any neurologist evaluation

as

the

It is well edited,

and essential

be read in its entirety

involved

on

in this

this book is the most comprehen-

field.

pleasure

significantly

chapter

for 25 years.

text on epilepsy

it should

but it is research

The chapter

over

by Herbert

reference

Although

the

Penfield

the

and place

significance

reading.

considerations.

160 contributors,

available

to seizure

satisfactory,

in the setting

Throughout

with

respect

satisfactory

from

research

on the intra-

test that I found very valuable

and

and when to stop drug treatment. worth

standard tion

with

pharmacology.

protocols

on basic

who worked

surgeon,

of the

is

vagal

on anesthesia

we need more

most

seizures

thoughtful

the

There

includes

rehabilitation,

and prognostic

is actually

gic but gist

The

the management

read-

enliven

that

is less than

was on postoperative

cusses The

outcome

section

outcome.

to pediatric

stimulation,

is on

resections.

chapters

of the authors;

program.

of

reviews

The

surgery

technique.

resections

in the chapter

are the best that I have read

of life, psychosocial

devoted

differences

32 on cortical

clearly

There

invasive

lobe

but

chapter

to date.

The

is superb

The surgery

The

lobe

approach

techniques

stimulation. of epilepsy

orgaand they do

of temporal

of temporal

Impor-

are presented,

in less detail.

different

on alternative

cerebellar

With

on invasive

refreshing

there

may im-

good references. section

and includes One

need

for psychiatric

semiology

SPECT

recording the

that

psychosocial

on ictal

ing other provide

screening

ictal

on neuropsychological

of psychiatric

of these problems

prediction

and

tailoring

treat-

callosum,

in detail.

of surgery

are described

tailoring

complications

techniques,

to surgical

techniques

types

by a completely

even a chapter and

in neuroimag-

14 chapters

the various

for other

preoperative

intraoperative

The

patients

morbidity

review

the

are not given. evalua-

devotes

techniques

followed

control,

chapter survey

operative on

defines

concepts

in the brain that in combinareduce

Epilepsy

psychiatric

information

chapter

The

centers.

The

evaluation

and

a valuable

by various come.

focus

on

tant

section

is more than one way to cut the corpus

and the text

to show functional

electroencephalographic

a seizure

concepts

imaging

tomography

The

fourth There

recommendations

advances

are now able

alterations

lesion.

preoperative

resonance

techniques

structural

with

however,

noninvasive

new magnetic

interictal

plicate

covers

general

Specific

is a good review of recent

scanning.

concen-

is outstanding.

concerning failure.

ment.

Although

of this section

syndromes

management,

section

including

tion

much

The

lobe, extratem-

syndromes.

where there is no obvious

a chapter

constitutes

on optimal

on temporal

hemispheric

on extratemporal

ends

what

chapters

and diffuse

on defining

The

ing

Book Reviews

S~rg Neud 1994;42:279-80

280

or neuro-

by anyone and

a

informawho is

treatment

of