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Thoracic surgery, 2nd ed.
656
Book reviews / The American Journal of Surgery 184 (2002) 655– 657
and university libraries and in the personal libraries of residents in training in thoracic surgery and trained chest surgeons alike. It may be too detailed for one with only a casual interest in the esophagus to purchase but will be an excellent resource for all who need an authoritative reference in the field. J. David Richardson, MD Department of Surgery University of Louisville Louisville, Kentucky
Evarts A. Graham: The life, lives, and times of the surgical spirit of St. Louis By C. Barber Mueller; Hamilton, Ontario: BC Decker, Inc., 2002. 494 pages, $48.00 C. Barber Mueller, Graham’s last resident, has done a superb job of documenting the life, times, and contributions of a remarkable man, Evarts A. Graham. The Forward is by Ben Eiseman, also one of Graham’s residents who was the first chairman of surgery at the University of Kentucky. Mueller himself has had a distinguished record as chairman of surgery at Syracuse in New York and McMasters University in Hamilton, Ontario. Between his internship at Barnes Hospital and the completion of his residency, he spent 3 years as a naval medical officer and participated in four invasion landings in the Pacific, resulting in a Bronze Star and two Purple Hearts. Mueller spent 8 years doing the background research and writing this book of meticulous detail, which is a tribute to the scholarship of the author as well as of his subject. Graham’s contributions are myriad— education, surgical standards, ethics, and leadership. He distinguished himself as head of the Empyema Commission of World War I. Graham never considered the surgery of cancer to be a separate field. He always considered himself a general surgeon. However, he did the first pneumonectomy for cancer of the lung and his patient outlived him. From the Barnes Hospital residency system came many surgeons who made significant contributions to surgical oncology. Graham was instrumental in creating the American Board of Surgery and the Joint Commission on the Accreditation of Hospitals. With Ernst Wynder, he attacked cigarettes as being causative of lung cancer. In his laboratory and with his leadership, oral cholecystography became a reality with its contributions to gall bladder and biliary tract surgery. Significantly, this was the first time the physiologic function of an organ was used to produce a clinically useful image. Mueller and Eiseman are but two of the many surgical leaders produced by the Barnes Hospital, Washington University system developed by Graham. Although Graham confirmed the relationship between cigarette smoking and lung cancer, he had always been a heavy smoker who
stopped smoking but still died of a very aggressive type of lung cancer. When studying the rates of growth of lung cancer, I was able to include his: it was the fastest growing lung cancer in my series, with a tumor volume doubling time of 8 days. It was a very short time span from his first symptom to his death. He was still active when I arrived at Barnes Hospital as a surgical intern in 1952. I had the privilege of meeting with him and in scrubbing with him on his last operation. Graham carried with him throughout his career a code of ethics evolving from his Scotch-Presbyterian background. As a product of his ethical sense, he opposed fee splitting and provided leadership to the formation of the American Board of Surgery to strengthen, standardize, and accredit surgical education. This book has to be read in its totality to be appreciated, and definitely should be read by every surgeon and those interested in medical education, history, and research. John S. Spratt, MD Department of Surgery University of Louisville Louisville, Kentucky
Thoracic surgery, 2nd ed. Edited by F. Griffith Pearson, MD, Joel D. Cooper, MD, Jean Deslauriers, MD, Robert J. Ginsberg, MD, Clement A. Hiebert, MD, G. Alexander Patterson, MD, Harold C. Urschel, Jr., MD; New York: Churchill Livingstone, 2002. 1,968 pages, $249.00. The second edition of Thoracic Surgery edited by F. Griffith Pearson, et al, provides the reader with an extensive up-to-date resource of the diseases that effect the thorax. The seven distinguished editors, along with more than 175 contributors from all over the world, provide a wide geographic and philosophic approach to their topics. This authoritative text contains 72 chapters organized along the same lines as the first edition. The editors are to be commended for the structure of each chapter in which a short historical segment followed by basic science, workup, and treatments give the reader a thorough understanding of the issues at hand. At the conclusion of each chapter, a summary followed by a comment-and-controversy section give the reader a single author’s distillation of the previous all-encompassing data set provided in the chapter. This second edition covers current topics such as advances in thoracoscopic techniques, PET scanning, and multimodality therapies in thoracic malignancies not addressed in the previous edition. These sections are very helpful to those developing an understanding of the diverse disease processes. At the end of each chapter, the references are categorized into key references, which are briefly reviewed, and an extensive list of other references utilized in the chapter. The index is extremely easy to use and one can readily find obscure subject matter with no difficulty.
Book reviews / The American Journal of Surgery 184 (2002) 655– 657
The illustrations are clear and consistent throughout the text. The photomicrographs and radiograph images are of excellent quality and provide the reader with clear visual images of the written text. Thoracic Surgery is an excellent up-to-date reference text on thoracic disease. All physicians, especially those in
657
training, will benefit from its practical guidance in this complex world of thoracic surgery. Mark A. Malias, MD Health First Heart Institute Melbourne, Florida
Book reviews / The American Journal of Surgery 184 (2002) 655– 657
and university libraries and in the personal libraries of residents in training in thoracic surgery and trained chest surgeons alike. It may be too detailed for one with only a casual interest in the esophagus to purchase but will be an excellent resource for all who need an authoritative reference in the field. J. David Richardson, MD Department of Surgery University of Louisville Louisville, Kentucky
Evarts A. Graham: The life, lives, and times of the surgical spirit of St. Louis By C. Barber Mueller; Hamilton, Ontario: BC Decker, Inc., 2002. 494 pages, $48.00 C. Barber Mueller, Graham’s last resident, has done a superb job of documenting the life, times, and contributions of a remarkable man, Evarts A. Graham. The Forward is by Ben Eiseman, also one of Graham’s residents who was the first chairman of surgery at the University of Kentucky. Mueller himself has had a distinguished record as chairman of surgery at Syracuse in New York and McMasters University in Hamilton, Ontario. Between his internship at Barnes Hospital and the completion of his residency, he spent 3 years as a naval medical officer and participated in four invasion landings in the Pacific, resulting in a Bronze Star and two Purple Hearts. Mueller spent 8 years doing the background research and writing this book of meticulous detail, which is a tribute to the scholarship of the author as well as of his subject. Graham’s contributions are myriad— education, surgical standards, ethics, and leadership. He distinguished himself as head of the Empyema Commission of World War I. Graham never considered the surgery of cancer to be a separate field. He always considered himself a general surgeon. However, he did the first pneumonectomy for cancer of the lung and his patient outlived him. From the Barnes Hospital residency system came many surgeons who made significant contributions to surgical oncology. Graham was instrumental in creating the American Board of Surgery and the Joint Commission on the Accreditation of Hospitals. With Ernst Wynder, he attacked cigarettes as being causative of lung cancer. In his laboratory and with his leadership, oral cholecystography became a reality with its contributions to gall bladder and biliary tract surgery. Significantly, this was the first time the physiologic function of an organ was used to produce a clinically useful image. Mueller and Eiseman are but two of the many surgical leaders produced by the Barnes Hospital, Washington University system developed by Graham. Although Graham confirmed the relationship between cigarette smoking and lung cancer, he had always been a heavy smoker who
stopped smoking but still died of a very aggressive type of lung cancer. When studying the rates of growth of lung cancer, I was able to include his: it was the fastest growing lung cancer in my series, with a tumor volume doubling time of 8 days. It was a very short time span from his first symptom to his death. He was still active when I arrived at Barnes Hospital as a surgical intern in 1952. I had the privilege of meeting with him and in scrubbing with him on his last operation. Graham carried with him throughout his career a code of ethics evolving from his Scotch-Presbyterian background. As a product of his ethical sense, he opposed fee splitting and provided leadership to the formation of the American Board of Surgery to strengthen, standardize, and accredit surgical education. This book has to be read in its totality to be appreciated, and definitely should be read by every surgeon and those interested in medical education, history, and research. John S. Spratt, MD Department of Surgery University of Louisville Louisville, Kentucky
Thoracic surgery, 2nd ed. Edited by F. Griffith Pearson, MD, Joel D. Cooper, MD, Jean Deslauriers, MD, Robert J. Ginsberg, MD, Clement A. Hiebert, MD, G. Alexander Patterson, MD, Harold C. Urschel, Jr., MD; New York: Churchill Livingstone, 2002. 1,968 pages, $249.00. The second edition of Thoracic Surgery edited by F. Griffith Pearson, et al, provides the reader with an extensive up-to-date resource of the diseases that effect the thorax. The seven distinguished editors, along with more than 175 contributors from all over the world, provide a wide geographic and philosophic approach to their topics. This authoritative text contains 72 chapters organized along the same lines as the first edition. The editors are to be commended for the structure of each chapter in which a short historical segment followed by basic science, workup, and treatments give the reader a thorough understanding of the issues at hand. At the conclusion of each chapter, a summary followed by a comment-and-controversy section give the reader a single author’s distillation of the previous all-encompassing data set provided in the chapter. This second edition covers current topics such as advances in thoracoscopic techniques, PET scanning, and multimodality therapies in thoracic malignancies not addressed in the previous edition. These sections are very helpful to those developing an understanding of the diverse disease processes. At the end of each chapter, the references are categorized into key references, which are briefly reviewed, and an extensive list of other references utilized in the chapter. The index is extremely easy to use and one can readily find obscure subject matter with no difficulty.
Book reviews / The American Journal of Surgery 184 (2002) 655– 657
The illustrations are clear and consistent throughout the text. The photomicrographs and radiograph images are of excellent quality and provide the reader with clear visual images of the written text. Thoracic Surgery is an excellent up-to-date reference text on thoracic disease. All physicians, especially those in
657
training, will benefit from its practical guidance in this complex world of thoracic surgery. Mark A. Malias, MD Health First Heart Institute Melbourne, Florida