Media Type: Textbook and accompanying DVD-ROM

Synopsis: This book is a concise, well-illustrated text covering most of the bread and butter techniques in oculoplastic surgery. It is best suited for trainees such as medical students, residents, and fellows as well as ophthalmologists who have an interest in but do not have significant experience with oculoplastic surgery. The accompanying DVD has narrated videos describing the surgical techniques. The strengths of this text are its portability, as well as the illustrations and accompanying videos. However, some readers may feel that the text is somewhat incomplete, as it does not cover all areas of oculoplastic surgery.

Target Audience: Comprehensive ophthalmologists.

Review: Surgical Techniques in Ophthalmology : Oculoplastic Surgery is intended for ophthalmologists who have an interest in oculoplastic and reconstructive surgery techniques. Learners in ophthalmology such as medical students, residents, and fellows may also find this text to be a useful introduction to the surgical techniques of oculoplastic surgery. The text is 175 pages long and is divided into 20 short chapters. It covers most of the bread and butter surgical techniques in oculoplastic surgery. However, it is lacking in some topics such as orbitotomy, surgical management of orbital cellulitis, endoscopic procedures such as dacryocystorhinostomy and brow lifting, and midface lifting. The topics that are covered in the text, however, are well illustrated and the text provides a very nice how-to-guide describing the author’s technique.

An added bonus to the text is the DVD-ROM, which contains narrated videos of the author’s surgical technique. The videos correlate very well with the text and serve as an outstanding teaching tool for surgeons just beginning to learn oculoplastic surgery.

Apart from a somewhat incomplete coverage of techniques in oculoplastic surgery, other criticisms of this book are few and minor. This text was not intended to be a complete reference for surgical techniques in oculoplastic surgery, and therefore, does not include the many variations of surgical options available for treating these conditions. For example, there are several techniques for addressing brow ptosis, yet the text only describes the author’s preferred technique. The other criticism I have for the text is that it is not intuitive how the chapters are organized. In summary, for the ophthalmology trainee as well as the ophthalmologists who desires a basic introduction to oculoplastic techniques, this text would be a very useful resource.