Plastic incunabula -- a tale of Carpue's Tagliacozzi's

Carpue's An Account of Two Successful Operations caused the rebirth of plastic surgery in 1816 over 200 years after the first plastic surgery book was written by Tagliacozzi. Tagliacozzi's book was pirated with both authorized edition and unauthorized editions having been published in 1597. In his book, Carpue reviewed the literature including Tagliacozzi's work. Carpue had Charles Turner, engraver-in-ordinary to the King prepare his books illustrations. Comparing Turner's engraving with those in the original and pirated editions of Tagliacozzi's book shows that Turner duplicated the pirated edition. The author discovered a pirated edition at St. Bartholomew's Medical College Library in 1971 that was signed by Carpue and shows how by comparing the illustrations in it with those in Carpue's book that this was the working copy used by Turner. In 1819 Carpue gave this book to a "B. Turner Jr." who probably was Turner's teenage son who later became a surgeon. In 2011 the author discovered an authorized version of Tagliacozzi's book signed by Carpue at the Lilly Library in Indiana. These books are important links in the history of plastic surgery.     

The Pharmacology of Inhaled Anaesthetics.

I must confess that I was disappointed when I first receivedthis book. I had expected that a book on inhalational anaesthesiawritten by names as big as Eger, Eisenkraft and Weiskopf wouldbe a huge reference tome, perhaps better split into two volumes.Instead I found an elegant book of only 270 pages of core content,supplemented by 40 pages of multiple choice questions and twoDVDs. It quickly became clear that the book is intended to educaterather than sit impressively on a shelf. According to the preface,its publication is prompted by the increasing popularity ofdesflurane and     

Principles and Practice of Emergency Neurology. Handbook for Emergency Physicians

This book was written to provide a handbook to be carried byemergency physicians involved in caring for patients with neurologicalemergencies. In practice, the book is too large to be carriedin a pocket but it does provide a valuable resource for referencefor physicians in accident and emergency departments or intensivecare units. It is a multi-author book but is well edited, sothat the style is     

Medical Writing: A Prescription for Clarity

I enjoyed reading this book, as it has changed the way I write.The aim of the book is to enable writers to communicate moreeffectively, and whether you are an amateur or a well-publishedauthor this book will be useful. After reading it, I immediatelywanted to redraft work I had written previously. But it is toolate! The book has     

Medicine in Dr Samuel Johnson's Dictionary of the English Language

When compiling the Dictionary of the English Language, Johnson read and annotated over two hundred thousand passages from innumerable English authors of various disciplines across four centuries. Most of the literary anecdotes came from Shakespeare, Milton, Dryden and Pope. The medical and scientific anecdotes came from 31 scientists, physicians, pharmacologists and surgeons. This reflects Johnson's admiration for science and its benefit to the public. He told Boswell, 'Why Sir, if you have but one book with you upon a journey let it be a book of science. When you read through a book of entertainment, you know it, and it can do no more for you, but a book of science is inexhaustible'.     

Bandolier's Little Book of Making Sense of the Medical Evidence. A. Moore and H. McQuay (editors). Published by Oxford University Press, Oxford. Pp. 415; indexed; illustrated. Price {pound}24.95. ISBN 98-0-19-856604-5.

As the title of the book clearly states, this book is aboutmaking sense of the medical evidence. Although plenty of booksabout general evidence based medicine has been published recently,this little book seems to have found its own ‘niche’—anapproach to the topic that is different from other publications.The book     

Cognitive Rehabilitation in Traumatic Brain Injury

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a major public health problem with neurobehavioral sequelae contributing to the long-term disability that is often associated with the moderate to severe levels of injury. Rehabilitation of cognitive skills is central to encouraging the full participation of the individual in home, vocational, and social roles. The review of available evidence points to four major recommendations for the rehabilitation of cognition following brain injury: 1) Access to subacute rehabilitation that is holistic in nature and involves a multidisciplinary or transdisciplinary team to work in an integrated fashion to support physical, cognitive, and social skill retraining is vital to support positive outcome following TBI. The collaborative effort of these individuals allows for continual reinforcement and evaluation of treatment goals and will often involve the family and/or important others in the individual’s life to prepare for community re-entry. 2) Trials of medication, especially methylphenidate, to assist individuals with significant attention and memory impairment appear well supported by the available evidence. Though some data suggest that the use of cholinesterase inhibitors may be of use for individuals with memory impairments, there is less support for this practice and there are indications that it may worsen the behavioral sequelae of the injury. 3) Randomized controlled trials demonstrate the utility of specific rehabilitation approaches to attention retraining and retraining of executive functioning skills. Future research is needed on rehabilitation techniques in other domains of cognition. 4) Training in the use of supportive devices (either a memory book or more technologically enhanced compensatory devices) to support the individual’s daily activities remains central to the independent function of the individual in the community. Though emerging treatments (eg, virtual reality environments) show relative degrees of promise for inclusion in the rehabilitation of the individual with TBI, these need further evaluation in systematic trials.     

Felix Wurtz: surgeon and pediatrician.

Felix Wurtz, a surgeon in Basel and Zurich, wrote a book on pediatrics, The Childrens Book, which was first published (after his death) in 1612. It is the first known book in western Europe to deal with pediatrics and surgery. The book discusses issues dealing with the care of children, also addressing problems in pediatric surgery, primarily congenital and acquired orthopedic malformations. The book, and the contribution of its writer to pediatric surgery, are reviewed. The accuracy of the first English language translation is also evaluated.     

Textbook of Obstetric Anaesthesia.

Some books say ‘read me’, and I think this is oneof them. The excellent opening chapter on the history of obstetricanaesthesia foretells a book that is interesting, informative,and stimulating. It is an attractive book that has been carefullyillustrated. Each chapter has an introductory index, which makesit easy to find what you are looking for, whether you are aspecialist registrar in the run up to the Final FRCA, or a DGHobstetric anaesthetist wanting to know how to handle a problem.It is a book that would also be useful for a     

Bandolier's Little Book of Pain

When I first saw this book, I was confused as to why somethingthat should be a reference book was bound in a plastic coverand of a size that would easily fit into a white coat pocket.Then I started reading it ... and using it. I found that I     

Acquired cystic disease of the kidney and renal cell carcinoma

This book is a well-presented and data-rich compendium on theproblem of acquired cysts and kidney cancers that occur in failedend-stage kidneys. Its Japanese author, Dr Isao Ishikawa, isthe world's authority on this subject. This book shows his comprehensive     

Dr Fouad M Al-Akl (1903-71): the life and achievement of a 1924 graduate of the American University of Beirut Medical School

This paper is a summary of a book entitled Until Summer Comes, written by F M Al-Akl and published in 1945 by the Pond-Ekberg Company. Only two copies of this book are known, one in the Library of the American University of Beirut and the other belongs to the author. This paper brings knowledge of the subject's life to a wider audience.     

Key Topics in Chronic Pain

It is no mean feat to encompass the diverse features and managementof chronic pain in 212 pages without being didactic, simplisticor superficial. This book achieves this to a large degree—withhonours! It is the second edition of a popular book in a serieswith a succinct and successful format. The changes are thosewhich reflect the evidence base of this speciality as determinedby meta-analysis, informed review, randomized controlled trials(as far as such evidence exists) and consensus. The book iswritten in three parts:     

Handbook of Pain Management. A Clinical Companion to Wall and Melzack's Textbook of Pain

This book is designed as a companion to Wall and Melzack’scomprehensive Textbook of Pain. The layout is clear with a helpfulat-a-glance summary of contents on the inside front cover. Despitemultiple authors, the style is generally fairly consistent.The book is divided into three sections, with clear subdivisions,marked by     

Golden Rules of Anaesthesia: the smallest book on anaesthesia?

Golden Rules of Anaesthesia, a waistcoat pocket-sized book by Robert James Probyn-Williams was published in three editions between 1904 and 1908. It may be the smallest English-language book on anaesthesia.     

Minimally Invasive Cardiac Surgery, 2nd Edn.

Minimally invasive cardiac surgery is a relatively new subspecialty.That this book on the subject, published in the ContemporaryCardiology Series, is already in a second edition illustratesthe rapid speed of development in the field. The book coversthe     

Kidney Failure Explained. Andy Stein and Janet Wild, Class Publishing, London, UK, 2002

This is the second edition, updated in 2002, of a book firstpublished in 1999 by a British Consultant Nephrologist and aRegistered Nurse working as a ‘Clinical Education Manager’. The book is directed mainly at patients     

Core Topics in Operating Department Practice: Anaesthesia and Critical Care.

This new book forms part of a series exploring aspects of corepractice in perioperative care. The book is intended to focuson developments in anaesthetic practice. It is aimed squarelyat the UK market of operating department practitioners and anaestheticnurses needing to     

Medical Management of the Surgical Patient. A Textbook of Perioperative Medicine

This is the latest edition of this book which has been fullyrevised, rewritten, and updated. The book is divided into twomain sections. The first part deals mainly with what the authorscall medical management and the second part deals with specificsurgical procedures and their individual complications. Thevarious chapters are