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.
There
poral,
are separate
lesional,
lesional trates
surgery
chapter
section
is well covered, syndromes
with
The tion.
medical
medical
next
There
positron These
and subtle
emission
surface
electrode
recording.
ing contains creased
on of
nization
and essential
The
sources
for
invasive
of what test batteries
are used
as a group
may
affect
assessment
show
surgical
information.
problems.
out-
assist
postoperatively. suggest
information,
of
Careful
will greatly
The authors
to fill in omitted
in-
has a wealth
preoperatively outcome
test-
was disappointing-lacking
discussion
opinion
are
discussion.
not
first
author
The
different
this over,
five other
opinions
initials
in parentheses.
arterial
amobarbital
book but
in chapter
differences
and the
my own practice.
of
glossed
are significance
evaluation
of every possible
aspect
For example
preoperative
are
(Wada)
is that
final section quality
of reoperation. through
no fault
postoperative section
allowed
to
diate postoperative appendix
presurgical good
between
the approach
contributors marked
of this
chapter.
by
authors’
are two chapters
the
evaluation
chapter
sive
in
epilogue
to read, and contains
epilepsy
It
a good reference in
for
WILLIAM
the
patients.
L. BELL,
Winston-Salem,
M.D.
North
dis-
of imme-
It contains
book
useful
30 centers are
there
Jasper,
and a
of an epilepsy
there
Finally
maintains surgery.
current
chapters
is a nostalthe neurolo-
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