Challenges in Pediatric Surgery

From The Critics

Reviewer: Robert M Arensman, MD(University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine)
Description: This rather unusual book consists of 18 historical vignettes on the most common pediatric surgical problems. These vignettes highlight the advances in each condition over the past century. Each chapter closes with a brief conclusion and a list of challenges that the author feels remain to be solved. Several invited commentaries follow each chapter, further illustrating the history or the challenges associated with each diagnosis.
Purpose: The preface for this book is a six-page curriculum vitae of the author. This introduction never clearly indicates the purpose for this book. The implication: a summation of landmark research and technical development over the 50 years of the author's practice with final thoughts on the problems yet to be solved.
Audience: The audience for this book will be very narrow, essentially pediatric surgeons interested in the historical development of their specialty, but others whose primary focus is the history of science and medicine will find here a nice compilation of historical references.
Features: The text has very few illustrations, graphics, or any other unusual features. The strongest feature is certainly the list of references that serves as a nice time-line for the major developments concerning each diagnosis.
Assessment: This book accurately traces the major development of surgery for children in 18 areas over the past century. There are some fascinating historical gems to be found in the references and citations from little known papers. Generally the challenges at the end of each chapter do represent the major problems yet to be solved; however, in. some chapters (especially those on biliary atresia and diaphragmatic hernia) recent research and developments have already superseded the information given. Historians interested in the care of children will be the few who will find great value in this manuscript.

Robert M. Arensman

This rather unusual book consists of 18 historical vignettes on the most common pediatric surgical problems. These vignettes highlight the advances in each condition over the past century. Each chapter closes with a brief conclusion and a list of challenges that the author feels remain to be solved. Several invited commentaries follow each chapter, further illustrating the history or the challenges associated with each diagnosis. The preface for this book is a six-page curriculum vitae of the author. This introduction never clearly indicates the purpose for this book. The implication: a summation of landmark research and technical development over the 50 years of the author's practice with final thoughts on the problems yet to be solved. The audience for this book will be very narrow, essentially pediatric surgeons interested in the historical development of their specialty, but others whose primary focus is the history of science and medicine will find here a nice compilation of historical references. The text has very few illustrations, graphics, or any other unusual features. The strongest feature is certainly the list of references that serves as a nice time-line for the major developments concerning each diagnosis. This book accurately traces the major development of surgery for children in 18 areas over the past century. There are some fascinating historical gems to be found in the references and citations from little known papers. Generally the challenges at the end of each chapter do represent the major problems yet to be solved; however, in. some chapters (especially those on biliary atresia and diaphragmatic hernia) recent research and developments have already superseded theinformation given. Historians interested in the care of children will be the few who will find great value in this manuscript.

2 Stars from Doody