Poor Piet deBoer! He and Stanley Hoppenfeld collaborated again for the
third edition of Surgical Exposures in Orthopaedics: The Anatomic
Approach. Since the first edition was published in 1984, this textbook
has become the reference for orthopaedic exposures, but it is
universally referred to only as "Hoppenfeld," as in, "Did
you review the exposure in Hoppenfeld?" Piet deBoer and illustrator Hugh
A. Thomas are all but forgotten.
The authors and illustrator have done it again. This third edition is
slightly larger, at 684 pages of text, than the second edition, which had 583
pages of text. The font and spacing have been changed to give the pages a more
open appearance than that in the previous editions, thus making for easier
reading. While the previous editions had some color in the illustrations, the
illustrations in this edition are presented in full color and are also better
spaced, which dramatically improves the appearance of the images.
Most of the text is unchanged. Once again the text has been arranged into
thirteen chapters. Each chapter, except for the last, covers one anatomic area
in the following order: the shoulder, the humerus, the elbow, the forearm, the
wrist and hand, the spine, the pelvis, the hip and acetabulum, the femur, the
knee, the tibia and fibula, and the ankle and foot. The thirteenth,
nonanatomic chapter deals with approaches for external fixation.
Two well-illustrated and clearly described topics are welcome additions to
this edition: the arthroscopic approach to the shoulder and the knee, which
provides the reader with the basics of arthroscopy of these two joints, and
the minimal-access approach to the proximal part of the humerus, the proximal
portion of the femur, and the proximal aspect of the tibia. Both of these
topics are valuable for the beginner but unnecessary for the experienced
surgeon who knows these approaches. Missing in the text are arthroscopic
approaches to the elbow, wrist, hip, and ankle.
Consistent with the previous editions, Surgical Exposures in
Orthopaedics is clearly written and thoroughly illustrated. The text is
minimal, as it should be, and much of the information is provided through the
illustrations. The only criticism is that, as is true with all textbooks that
depict anatomy, the surgical exposures during an actual operation are always
much more complicated than they appear to be in textbook illustrations. Of
necessity, the illustrator has left undrawn all of the tissues that normally
obscure the important structures. This illusion may impart a false sense of
security to the reader, who should be warned that the actual surgical exposure
will not be as clear as that depicted in the textbook.
Every surgeon, every library, and every student of anatomy should own an
edition of this textbook. I am not aware of another text that even tries to
compete with Surgical Exposures in Orthopaedics: The Anatomic
Approach. It may not be worth the expense of buying the third edition if
you already own the second edition, but one of the two should be in your
personal library.