Written by an ENT surgeon (Dr. Dunnebier) with collaboration from 2 radiologists (Drs. Beek and Pameijer), this easily portable 346-page softcover book is intended for ENT surgeons who wish to have an atlas-type demonstration of major imaging abnormalities of the head and neck. The chapters are: “Radiographic Imaging Techniques,” “Temporal Bone,” Skull Base,” “Paranasal Sinuses and Nasal Cavity,” and “The Neck.”

This is clearly intended for practicing ENT surgeons, and it succeeds in that regard. From a radiologist’s standpoint, the images and the parts worth looking at are those which show postoperative appearances. Worth noting are comments which are of interest to our surgical colleagues.

While few if any neuroradiologists would likely purchase this book, it can be a publication which could be recommended by radiologists to their head neck surgeons.

For those radiologists who specialize or have a keen interest in head and neck imaging, this book, ENT—Head and Neck Surgery: Essential Procedures, may be of interest.

Basically, it describes and illustrates with crisp diagrams all of the major surgical procedures an otolaryngologist would deal with. This has significant implications for neuroradiologists, since we should know how abnormalities are approached, what the different surgical options are, what variations in anatomy affect the approach, and what complications may occur.

While only hardcore head and neck radiologist will purchase this book, it certainly is one which neuroradiologists may wish to have access to, either via their own Departmental library or via the Surgery Library in their institution.

For those neuroradiologists who deal with both orthopedic surgeons and neurosurgeons where a large volume of spine surgery is performed, a baseline understanding of the various surgical procedures is essential. In this compact 512-page softcover book, Drs. Baaj, Mummaneni, Uribe, Vaccaro, and Greenberg (along with 80 contributors) have put togather an instructive, highly readable description comprised of surgical techniques in 40 common and relatively common procedures. This section, which compares nearly half the book, is supplemented by sections on spinal anatomy, an overview of clinical spine surgery, and spinal pathology.

There is a significant amount of important information in every chapter, offering bullet points of details relevant to the imaging of spine patients. A relative uniform setup of the surgical chapters includes key points, indications for the procedure, surgical techniques, complications, outcomes, and surgical “pearls.”

This small but important book should be available to all neuroradiologists who deal with a significant volume of spine surgery. A departmental library purchase or a personal copy is recommended.

]]> http://www.ajnrblog.org/2011/10/18/handbook-of-spine-surgery/feed/ 0 http://www.ajnrblog.org/2011/09/14/principles-and-practice-of-movement-disorders-2nd-ed/ http://www.ajnrblog.org/2011/09/14/principles-and-practice-of-movement-disorders-2nd-ed/#comments Wed, 14 Sep 2011 21:10:35 +0000 bookreviews http://www.ajnrblog.org/?p=5312 Fahn S, Jankovic J, Hallet M.  Principles and Practice of Movement Disorders, 2^nd ed. Saunders Elsevier, 2011, 556 pages, $219.00.

Drs. Fahn, Jankovic, and Hallet (all neurologists) have written a comprehensive 556-page book entitled Principles and Practice of Movement Disorders. This robust and definitive text describes the major aspects of this set of diseases by basically dividing the clinical material into 2 sections: Hypokinetic disorders and Hyperkinetic disorders. These 2 sections follow a 65-page overview of this subject which includes a historical background, prevalence of various symptoms related to these disorders, and an enormous amount of material in … Continue reading >>

This 600-page softcover text written by Drs. Donohoe and Abbeele uses a quiz format of 165 cases in Nuclear Medicine, only 7 of which relate to neuroradiology. Each case comes with a clinical history, images, and the technique on one page, followed on the next 2 to 3 pages by an interpretation of the images, a differential diagnosis, and a discussion (with the now common place “pearls and pitfalls”). Suggested readings follow. The book will have little to no appeal to those who practice strictly Neuroradiology, but the book could be of value to a nuclear medicine library.

For those residents preparing for the written or oral (soon-to-be non-oral) ABR examination this 800-page book—co-authored by Drs. Weissleder, Wittenberg, Harisinghani, and Chen (now in its 5^th edition)—is of value. It contains no images, but in many places the diagrams serve to highlight the pathology and techniques. In actuality, many times it is easier to understand a concept or a disease via a cartoon (drawing) than with an image itself. Of great value are the multiple tables in every section. As expected, the chapters are Chest, Cardiac, GI, GU, MSK, Neuro, Head and Neck, Vascular/IR, Breast, OB, Peds, and Nuclear. The two last chapters cover Contrast Agents and Imaging Physics.

This book should be part of every Departmental library, and I suspect that every resident would want a copy for his/her own use. The book is valuable, not only for Board review, but as one passes from rotation to rotation; the key issues are easily accessed.

While few neuroradiologists are primarily involved in the interpretation of nuclear scans, we often are asked our opinion in clinical neuroscience conferences. A review based on a quiz format allows one to view cases and pertinent information on diseases of interest to our specialty. In this 232-page softcover book—edited by Drs. Appelbaum, Miliziano, Nayak, and Bradley—each of the 100 cases starts with an image or set of images with a brief clinical history, thus allowing a self-quiz. The following pages describe the findings, give a differential diagnosis, discuss the entity under consideration, and end with key points (termed Perils and Pitfalls). Besides cases of particular interest to neuroradiologists—Alzheimer dementia, brain death, sacral insufficiency fractures, postictal seizures, tumor (GBM), parathyroid adenoma, cerebral ischemia, CSF leak—there are interjected cases requiring knowledge of radiation safety for workers, nuclide preparation, radionuclide therapy,  and patient safety. An additional 150 cases are available online when the scratch off code is implemented. There is a reading list applicable to each case (1 to 3 references) and an index which allows a quick query to specific items. Although not designed for neuroradiologists, this book would be a good addition to a Departmental or Nuclear Medicine Library.

For those working in a hospital or academic medical center where there is a large Department of Neurology which deals with a significant volume of patients undergoing a work up for dementia, this book could serve as a proper companion to the recently reviewed book Neuroimaging in Dementia.

This softcover 320-page book is written entirely by Drs. Budson and Solomon is divided into 6 sections.  The book is aimed at the clinicians who deal with patients who may have disorders ranging all the way from mild cognitive impairment to severe dementia of various types. There are adequate routine images of many of the disorders, but these, of course, would not be of great benefit to our readership. Rather, it is the clarity and ease of reading of the clinical manifestations, laboratory studies, and treatments which would be of most interest to us. Take the chapter (chapter 7) on frontotemporal dementia as one example. Here the first two pages contain in bullet like format a summary of what follows—i.e. definition of FTD, prevalence of the disease, genetics, cognitive/behavior changes, the criteria used to make the diagnosis, treatment strategies, and a differential diagnosis. In the chapter we see gross and histologic pathology, and a SPECT scan. A similar format is present in the other chapters. A companion with Alzheimer’s disease points out the differences between the two.

An interesting last chapter is entitled Case Studies (11 patients), but the imaging is limited and not particularly helpful in these cases.

Ever wonder what neurosurgeons are asked on their oral boards? This softcover 257-page book Neurosurgery Oral Board Review by Drs. Citow and Adamson will give you some insights.

Just as ABR examinees are told before they sit for the oral boards in radiology, the authors of this text imply in their preface that the examiners are fair, that they are there to encourage the examinee, and that one should remain relaxed during the exam. That, of course, is easy to say after the exam is over and passed.

In any event the book is divided into 3 sections: Spinal Disorders, Cranial Disorders, and Miscellaneous topics. In spinal disorders, as one would expect, anatomy /approaches along with trauma, degenerative disease, tumors, and other diseases are covered, and a similar number of chapters for the cranial disorders cover anatomy/approaches, trauma, tumors, vascular disease, and other cranial disorders. The miscellaneous section includes chapters on congenital lesions, pain issues, peripheral nerves, critical care, and neurology.

There are cases (predominantly image-based) with the history. Obviously, the candidate is supposed to suggest the diagnosis and treatment plan.  At the end of the book, under Case Vignettes, the answers are given along with what we assume the examiner wishes to hear concerning treatment and potential complications. In some cases, such as in sellar/suprasellar/ parasellar mass, the diagnosis is not given but rather a differential diagnosis (they use SATCHMO also) only is mentioned, followed by treatment suggestions.

It is interesting to flip through the cases and see particularly how the problems are handled—the diagnoses are not difficult, but to many neuroradiologists, exactly how the many entities are approached with surgery could be illuminating.

While this isn’t a book we would want to purchase, it certainly would be worth borrowing for a couple days from a neurosurgical resident.

For those who like to look at the errors of others, this book will be of interest.  For neuro (predominately CT) and vascular imaging the material is relatively straightforward but does point out errors that can be made.  Sections covered are Neuro, Chest, Breast, Abdomen, Spine, MSK, and Vascular System. This would be a decent purchase for a Departmental library.  It could supplement and be a reference for peer review or Morbidity and Mortality conferences.