Principles of Neurosurgery

Even the word "neurosurgery" itself conjures immediate feelings of complexity and incomprehensibility to the student who is trying to understand the concepts involved in surgical treatments of the human brain. Especially at the beginning of the road to understanding this complex subject, the student is often overwhelmed and frustrated by the explosive number of monographs, texts, atlases, and other literature available on the subject. For the student who wants a text that is intended to give a broad overview of the subject that is comprehensive without being encyclopedic, Principles ofNeurosurgery makes the core areas of neurosurgery fascinating and easy to comprehend. In short, Principles of Neurosurgery is a searchlight that will guide senior medical students and junior neurosur-gical residents alike through the intriguing field of surgical treatments of patients with disorders of the nervous system. Composed of 51 chapters, Principles ofNeurosurgery begins with a short introductory chapter on landmarks in the history of neurosurgery starting with the Greek and early Byzantine period. The remaining 50 chapters are concerned with modern understanding of the neuroanatomy, neurophysiology, surgical approaches and management of disorders of the human nervous system. There are chapters devoted to hydrocephalus, craniosynos-tosis, chiari malformations, cerebrovascular occlusive disease, epilepsy, intracranial arachnoid cysts, neuro-oncology, injuries of the spinal cord and vertebrae and interven-tional neuro-radiology, to name just a few. The chapter on stereotactic radiosurgery and focused beam irradiation (Chapter 42) was of particular interest, as it demonstrated the lat-est in neurosurgery where a scalpel is not necessary for the treatment of vascular malfor-mations and tumors. With more than 900 figures in the forms of tables, algorithms, cartoons, photographs, flow charts and color illustrations, Principles ofNeurosurgery has a visual appeal that also substantially simplifies the understanding of the complicated concepts and subjects discussed. The neuro-imaging presented in the form of MRI, CT and X-ray images are of top quality and make the lesion that is being presented immediately obvious. The color photographs of the intraoperative scene, in addition to demonstrating the neurosurgical technique, also introduces the inexperienced medical student to the sanguine environment of the operating room. This is particularly true in the chapter on traumatic skull and facial fracture (chapter 18) where photos of actual patients with extremely severe injuries to the head are shown in detail. Collectively, the large number of these highly informative illustrations clearly sets this volume apart from any other textbook available on the subject. The text …