Book Reviews 565

In general, the content is excellent, but some particularly ophthalmological aspects are not well covered, such as retinal disorders, fluorescein angiography, and inflammatory eye disease as a differential, and there is little reference to glaucoma, particularly in the section on optic atrophy. Orbital disorders are only mentioned in passing. Reference to related problems in ENT or myopathic areas are incidental. Nystagmus is omitted in any detail, and some of the orthoptic examination is explained using jargon which might not be familiar to all readers. The approach stresses the importance of the history in the clinical context, but there is no synopsis of the important features of the history, as this is covered in the brief case histories: I would find such a summary valuable.

Particular attractions are the format and presentation, and the 28 colour illustrations which are each directly related to a case history. Visual fields are well illustrated. However, some of the CT scans are of poor quality, and their lack of labelling could cause confusion. Some of the photographs in the pupil section are disappointing, but in general the illustrations do credit to the price. The references are informative and up to date.

This is a book which should appeal to ophthalmologist, neurologist and neurosurgeon (and perhaps neuroradiol- ogist) as a compact and practical guide which competes very favourably for clinical purposes with larger synopses. In my opinion it is good value for the price.

l~c,~y FsaTX Peggy Frith MRCP DO, is a Senior Registrar in Medical Ophthalmology at The Eye Hospital, Oxford 0)(2 6AN, U.K.

Nem'elogy & Neummrlgery Illustrated. K. W. LINDSAY, I. B o ~ and R. CALLANDER. Price" £19.50. ISBN 0-443- 02945-8. Churchill Livingstone, Edinburgh, 1986.

As the authors rightly state, most texts dealing with basic neurological and neurosurgical sciences discuss these two highly interlinked disciplines in a fairly divorced fashion. Although this practice is often necessary at the postgraduate level where attention to detail is essential, an undergraduate student would stand to benefit more from a text which approached both the pathological and surgical aspects of the nervous system in an integrated manner. This book does just that very well. The illustrated text technique is used throughout the book which makes the contents relatively easy to follow, understand and assimilate. The comprehen- sive use of drawings makes this book unique. Indeed, the book was a joy to read and would most definitely be a popular one at the undergraduate level for which it is intended.

The book is divided into 5 sections. The first dealing with history and examination of the nervous system. However the part addressing examination of cranial nerves is not as

comprehensive as it might have been. The next section describes the investigative techniques used in neurology and neurosurgery with an emphasis on the various imaging techniques (computerized tomography scanning, digital substract angiography, nuclear magnetic resonance, posi- tron emission tomography). I particularly liked Section 3 in which anatomical and physiological concepts underlying clinical presentations and diagnostic approaches were clearly depicted. This section covers a wide range of clinical presentations, including higher cortical dysfunction, disor- ders of speech and language and confusional states and delirium.

Localization and management of neurological diseases are presented in Section 4, which is the largest section of the book. Clinical assessment and investigative approaches are clearly presented and the reader is logically lead to the localization of the pathology. This section is divided into 3 parts, part I is concerned with intracranial disorders such as cerebrovascular disease, tumours and abscess. This part also includes a brief mention of surgical treatments of some conditions, however operative techniques are not described. Spinal cord and related diseases are discussed in the second part of this section which covers pathologies of mechanical, degenerative and vascular origin. Part 3 deals with periph- eral nerve and muscles disorders with a separate relatively comprehensive account of Myasthenia gravis. The last section of the book covers the multifocal neurological diseases and their management. Demyelinating diseases, encephalopathies of metabolic origin, degenerative dis- orders, motor neurone disease, etc. are briefly presented. Part of this section which deals with bacterial and viral infections of the nervous system is especially good with a sound account of the possible courses of treatment.

The only criticism of this book is the lack of either etiology or prognosis of the different conditions. Although one could argue that the book is not meant to discuss those two aspects, I feel that a brief discussion of prognosis of some disorders would have been useful to the undergraduate.

In summary, the first part of the book is concerned with techniques and investigative methods of neurologically- based clinical conditions, while the second part is mainly concerned with the clinical presentation and management of those disorders. There is a good balance between neurology and neurosurgery and the integrated approach in presenting the two disciplines is excellent. The symptoms, localization and management of disorders are presented in a concise and in some instances comprehensive fashion. In that context it would prove most useful for the undergraduate student and given its modest price I feel that this book will serve for some time to come as an excellent teaching and learning aid.

H^xi G ~ z x

Hani Ghazi is at the Nuffield Laboratory of Ophthalmology, Oxford University, Walton Street, Oxford 0?(2 6.4 W, U.K.