Book reviews

Guide to Surgical Terminology, Cole- man, F: Oradell, NJ: Medical Economics Book Division, Inc, $9.00.

This guide book could be of great benefit in many areas where surgical terminology i s used. It could be of valuable help to nurses, physician's aides, medical secre- taries, records librarians and hospital transcribers. It could be a great help to the interne starting dictation of surgical pro- cedures and to operating room personnel who wish to increase their knowledge in terminology. Also, this guide could be a valuable aid in teaching, writing clinical histories, operative findings, revising or writing new procedures, books and sur- geons' "want" cards.

This comprehensive guide can eliminate countless hours of time spent in searching through cumbersome dictionaries, textbooks, reference works, instrument catalogues and pharmaceutical lists to find the proper terminology for describing detailed surgical procedures. Who hasn't done just that, es- pecially when revising or updating written material?

There are 206 surgical procedures cov- ered in the book. The procedures are grouped according to the doctor's specialty, such as orthopedic, eye, uroiogical, geneco- logical and other operations. All terms for each procedure are listed alphabetically. Physical findings, diagnoses, operative find- ings, medical devices, frequently used drugs, laboratory data and others are found in the listings.

This book is a handy 8%'' x 11" size, durably bound in a flexible cover. The easily read print i s reproduced on fine paper.

A department head of medical records, after reading the Guide, writes "This book would be very valuable to a surgical tran- scriber. Thanks for letting us in on it. It i s

an excellent handbook and i s very prac- tical ."

Buy one; use it; you will like it because it

Mabel Crawford, RN 10s Angeles

is surgical terminology in a nutshell.

December 1972 79