Michael J. Coughlin, Roger A. Mann, Charles L. Saltzman, editors. Philadelphia: Mosby Elsevier; 2007. 2235 pages. $499.00. ISBN: 978-0-323-03305-3.
This is both figuratively and literally a very weighty book that, by virtue of its electronic supplements, is a remarkable achievement in the blending of print, web, and video. The evolutionary roots of this book lie in the original Surgery of the Foot, by Henri DuVries (1959). At the time of the first publication, foot surgery was only an asterisk in most textbooks, and the topic was accorded such minimal importance that it comprised small discussions of bunions, hammertoes, and flat feet. In commemoration of the upcoming fiftieth anniversary of that first publication, this eighth edition has a gold cover and gold-colored "50" icons sprinkled throughout the work. Specialty works of this type are usually written either by a single author, which can result in a personal, opinionated, and sometimes biased account, or by multiple authors, which often results in wide-ranging and disparate information. This work combines the best aspects of both types of authorship by showing us personal and opinionated information balanced by more diverse information available only from multiple authors.
This is a distillation of Roger Mann's work, further expanded and developed primarily by Michael Coughlin. Dr. Coughlin, an extensively published surgeon, has taken the previous editions of Mann's and Coughlin's jointly edited books, edited out large sections of redundancy, and expanded areas where new information is available. Subsections have been totally rewritten and approximately half of the material is new. Charles Saltzman has been added to the editorial staff, bringing a wealth of fresh ideas. Twenty-nine new authors have joined the original seventeen authors. The list of authors reads as a "who's who" of orthopaedic surgeons skilled in foot and ankle problems.
This body of work is a delight to behold. The text is printed in a font that is easy to read, and a great array of modern graphics has been utilized to lure the reader into exploring more than an initial topic. The use of blue headers in the text and the blue background call-out for surgical techniques permits easy reading and facile eye transition. Instead of the usual Times New Roman font, the publishers have chosen to mix together three very pleasing fonts: Avenir l, ITC Giovanni l, and Trajan l. The graphics guide the reader's eyes through a wonderful array of pleasing experiences and are totally unlike the graphics seen in many of our existing textbooks.
The two-volume textbook comes with two supplementary teaching aids, making the purchase extremely valuable even to the reader who is not electronically savvy. I come from the cohort of people who cringe when they see a manual for a new electronic device, yet I found the DVD installation and the online use quite simple. The online component of this educational package is remarkable. It incorporates multiple additional teaching components, such as a monthly content update, a library of downloadable images, reference links to PubMed, and full text articles. The navigational tools in this site are quite easy to use. One criticism of the online version is that the illustrations were embedded into the text in such a way that they were difficult to see and relate to the printed material. However, I was able to easily print illustrations and download the graphs to a different site. An additional feature, which could be of help to those who are comfortable with electronic gyrations, is the ability to export content from the web site to a personal digital assistant (PDA) to carry to the office or operating room as a memory refresher.
Liberally placed throughout the book are icons to direct the reader to areas where video clips can be found. The video clips are easily referenced. The addition of color photographs and illustrations to the text greatly enhances the pleasure of using this work.
The book is organized into ten parts and divided into chapters under each part, permitting excellent and rapid access to material. An example of some of the excellent writing is the hallux valgus chapter, which has been comprehensively rewritten by Coughlin and Mann and encompasses the evolved ideas that they have been espousing over the last thirty years. This is the largest chapter in the book and, paired with the chapter on lesser toe deformities, could stand alone as an excellent tome. The 386 references for hallux valgus are comprehensive almost to a fault, giving the reader an overwhelming amount of material to peruse.
The concerns that I had with the text and electronic supplements can be dismissed as minimal and pedantic. My main complaint with the text material is aimed at the editing and not the authors. It is my perception that publishing companies believe that they can charge a greater price for a larger book. This being the case, they will often fail to do the judicious and necessary editing that refines and sculpts the text to the concise and pithy language that it should have. That failure occurred here. Also, sprinkled throughout the book are areas that are nonessential and sometimes distracting. An example is in the radiology section, which contains tables that describe the accuracy of magnetic resonance imaging for foot infections and also contains radiographic algorithms. In addition, patient questionnaires could most likely have been left out of the printed copy.
When I attempted to utilize the publisher's technical support feature I did play "telephone tag" for a period of time and never had a completely satisfactory resolution to my questions. I suspect this is no different from the technical support systems present with other electronic devices, but the user should be prepared to be frustrated when attempting to access this feature.
The DVDs contain videos of operative procedures that were previously published in Coughlin's and Mann's 1995 The Video Textbook of Foot and Ankle Surgery. These are a direct export from the 1995 work but have been edited and shortened with new voice-overs so that they are no longer outdated and stodgy.
This body of work sets the "gold standard" not only in foot and ankle topics but also in textbook publishing. No longer will it be acceptable for a publisher to present a textbook in neutral boring fonts and unexciting graphics. One now expects to have the ability to move from text to electronic media and back, thereby markedly expanding the learning experience.
This text should be read by anyone providing foot and ankle care. It is a must for any surgeon doing a large amount of foot and ankle work, and it is a superb supplement to any orthopaedic surgery library. It should be present in every medical library and every residency text collection. Although this is a combined effort of numerous talented and skilled physicians, it is the magnum opus of Michael Coughlin, and it benefits immensely from that.