Venous and Lymphatic Diseases

Book Review Venous and Lymphatic Diseases Nicos Labropoulos and Gerard Stansby (eds.). London: Taylor and Francis, 2006. Pages: 559. ISBN: 9780824729233. Price: £110.00 (British pounds). This book is deceptive. Sitting on the desk it looks like a small novel. However, a glance at the table of contents reveals otherwise. Few books attempt to cover all of the problems of venous disorders, as well as those affecting the lymphatic systems of the extremities. This book does this task and does it exceedingly well. There are six sections which treat with venous disorders and an additional section which deals with lymphatic disorders. On the venous side, one of the strengths is the contribution by Alberto Caggiati, who provides an interesting and novel historical background and then turns to another subject and provides a chapter on venous and lymphatic anatomy. He is, after all, professor of anatomy at the University of Rome. Professor Caggiati has been a part of the movement toward standardizing nomenclature of the veins. He includes the new terms in his chapter, also providing a very clear diagram of the saphenous compartment and its companion accessory saphenous veins. Physiology of the veins and lymphatics is explained by Phillip Coleridge Smith, and no one can do it better. Other chapters in this first section include epidemiology of venous disorders, health economics and quality of life, as well as classification of chronic venous disease and outcome assessment. The following sections are testimony to the authors’ interest in providing a mixture of North American and European contributors. Junior authors are listed, but the chapters have the imprint of each of the senior contributors. There are chapters on clinical assessment, noninvasive evaluation, and invasive tests. A section follows the

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chapter on diagnosis of deep vein thrombosis. Because of the importance of this subject, its diagnosis, epidemiology, treatment, and relationship to malignant disease and thrombolysis occupy the next seven chapters, each representing an authoritative opinion of an internationally well-known author. The authors have not given short shrift to the subject of varicose veins. Here, there are eight chapters, including an interesting diversion into medical-legal aspects of treatment of varicose veins. It is appropriate that most of the authors in this section are from Europe and the United Kingdom. Superficial venous surgery appears again in the section on chronic venous insufficiency simply because the majority of patients with chronic leg ulcer have only superficial incompetence with or without perforator incompetence. Illustrating the fact that this is a complete book is the final venous section, which covers the subjects of upper extremity venous thrombosis, mesenteric and portal vein thrombosis, as well as superior vena cava obstruction and congenital venous abnormalities. Reflecting their recent experience, the authors of the chapter on venous trauma are from Belfast and cover their subject exceedingly well in very few pages. Physicians and surgeons interested in venous disorders inevitably see a great number of patients with lymphedema. Only two chapters are devoted to this subject, but they are thorough and discuss clinical features, investigations, the role of conservative, medical and surgical treatments, and the management of the very difficult problems of chylous ascites and chylothorax. This is an excellent book on many important topics and could be a farewell gift to a good vascular trainee. It also belongs in the libraries of every teaching vascular service, both in America and abroad. John Bergan, MD E-mail: [email protected] DOI: 10.1007/s10016-006-9116-x Published online: October 25, 2006