BOOK REVIEWS

BIOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF RECONSTRUCTIVE SURGERY. Edited by DESMOND A. KERNAHAN and LARS. M. VISTNES. First edition. Pp. x+413 with 131 illustrations. (Boston, Massa- chussetts : Little Brown and Company). Price:

This is a book of x chapters written by 22 different authors, which sets out to expound the genetic, embryological, physiological and pathological backgrounds of those conditions which come within the province of the plastic surgeon. The Editors claim that the information which they have brought together is not available in sufficient detail in the standard text books of physiology and pathology and that much of the information can only be obtained by time-consuming searches for original sources. The book is well produced and most of the chapters are well written and make interesting reading. However, it is on the basis of its success or failure in achieving the stated objectives that it must be judged. Surely the relevant information on embryology and genetics, on the local and general effects of injury, including burns, is widely available in the standard texts and there seems little justification for repeating this informa- tion in a separate book. Having said this, I must say that I enjoyed the chapters on Embryology by K. L. Moore, on Fluids and Electrolytes by John McKenzie, Metabolism by Harold A. Harper, Growth and Aging by Desmond A. Kernahan, Flap Design by Ernest N. Kaplan and Terry R. Knapp, and the whole of the last section (5 chapters on Healing of the Wound), although I thought that general aspects of healing might well have been expanded. Some of the other shorter chapters are very disappointing.

I. F. K. MUIR

ZEITSCHRIFT FUR PLASTISCHE CHIRURGIE. Edited by P. R. ZELLNER and F. E. MOLLER. Volume I, Number I, September 1977. (Stuttgart: Hippokrates Verlag.)

It] was in Germany that the term “plastic” was first applied to..a separate variety of surgery. When Baronio’s book was translated into German, it was entitled “Uber animalische Plastik”. The first textbook on plastic surgery, Zeis’ “ Handbuch der plastischen Chirurgie” was published in Germany in 1838. With such a tradition it is surprising that it has taken so long for plastic surgery to be recognised as a separate branch of surgery in Germany but this is now so and is the reason for the publication of this new journal.

Editorial emphasis is to be on the publication of established and newer techniques in plastic surgery and this first issue is mainly filled with review articles. It is entirely in German without any summaries in other languages and is directed at a German-speaking readership. The layout and the standard of reproduction of the illustrations are excellent as one would expect. Being mainly concerned with review articles it should not compete with the longer-established journals of plastic surgery and we wish it well.

T. GIBSON

THE EGYPTIAN JOURNAL OF PLASTIC AND RECONSTRUCTIVE SURGERY. Edited by Professor GAMAL E. BEHEIRI. Volume 2, Number I, January 1978. Cairo: Dar El Hana Printing House.

Here is still another new journal of plastic and reconstructive surgery, the official organ of the Egyptian Society of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery. One has always admired the number of clinical and pure research papers which have come from Egyptian plastic surgeons and many have appeared in the British journal. This trait is evident in their new journal. There are papers on pathological changes in the muscles of the hand after burning injury, the role of lymphatics in chronic leg ulcers, the use of bone cement as a means of fixing jaw fractures and biochemical studies on non-endocrmal obesity in Egypt, but in addition there are practical clinical papers on the incidence of malignant melanoma in xeroderma pigmentosa, the use of the dorsalis pedis flap in 14 cases of leg ulcers and firearm injuries of the face in civil life.

The standard of production could certainly be improved, particularly the binding which depends on staples and in the copy under review some of the beginning and end papers were already separate from the rest, but they are not a very large Society and one commends their initiative in producing their own journal.

T. GIBSON

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