268
British Journal of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery
contributors of a surgeon with more experience in modern maxillofacial techniques would have made it much more acceptable.
curredcy, it represents excellent value. I am sure it will soon be on all the shelvesof our higher surgical trainees. P. WARD BOOTH
A. E. BROWN Atlas of Regional and Free Flaps for Head and Neck Reconstruction. By M. L. Urken, M. L. Cheney, M. J. Sullivan, H. F. Biller. Raven Press.Price $265. ISBN: 0-7817-0197-X. This is a superb book, covering an important area of maxillofacial surgery. Many will be familiar with the main author’s work emphasising the importance of ‘rehabilitation’ in oral cancer, including the immediate bony, and osseointegrated implant reconstruction, and some early results of re-inovation of free flaps. This, however, is very much a surgical manual of tried and tested reconstructions. Although in no way innovative, it supplies the reader with an easy to read manual of commonly used flaps. As is so often with text books from the US, the illustrations, both photographs and diagrams are extremely good. This element clearly marks the book out as ‘something different’. Most of the surgical photographs come from dissectionson fresh cadavers, but these are close enough to reality to be informative. There is also a lot of common-sense in the text, with a useful paragraph on ‘potential pitfalls’. The book is only of passing interest to established surgeons, but extremely useful for trainees and those developing a practice in oncology. Finally if the USA price is accurately translated into UK
Temporal Bone and Posterior Cranial Fossa CD-Rom. By B. Hillen. Elsevier Science.Price $417.00. This again is a very exciting view of anatomy with an ability to work on and understand the anatomy, CT pictures and MRI views of an incredibly, anatomically difficult area (9000 images of normal anatomy and 1200 correlative images from CT, MRI and histology). I was able to follow the facial, accessory and hypoglossal nerves through their intra-cranial and temporal aspects. I was able to view the middle ear-ossiclesand inner ear with ease. This particular area is more suitable for our ENT colleagues but it has a valuable part to play in postgraduate centres and for our juniors studying for primary fellowships. There is an ability to be able to zoom into any area and magnify it and to allow the anatomy unfold in a continuous mode in sagittal, coronal or axial plane. It is also possible to print a particular anatomical section to bring to the operating theatre with you to explain to others what you are doing! All you need is an IBM compatible PC with Microsoft R Windows TM 3.1, 4Mb internal memory, 3.5 Mb free disc space 86-33 CPU or better, accelerated video card, mouse and CD-Rom player (preferably double speed). L. F. A. STASSEN