Media Type: Book series

Synopsis: The overwhelming sea of new knowledge added to the field of pediatric ophthalmology, constantly, makes it difficult for clinicians to grasp every single detail in the field. This is particularly true for clinicians in an office setting who may often need to urgently fetch information about a particular disorder. This is when review and summary books come in handy to rescue clinicians needing this kind of help. The book titled “Color Atlas And Synopsis of Clinical Ophthalmology, Wills Eye Institute, pediatric ophthalmology” is an example of such review books, providing concise and rather comprehensive information in the field of pediatric ophthalmology.

Target Audience: Students, ophthalmology residents, comprehensive and pediatric ophthalmologists

Review: This book is part of a series of books that is designed to provide updated and summarized clinical overview of the major areas of ophthalmology targeting students, residents, and practitioners in all of the healthcare professions. The book is edited by Leonard D. Nelson. He is an associate professor of ophthalmology and pediatrics at Jefferson medical college in Philadelphia, PA and attending surgeon at Wills Eye Institute. He is also the co-director of the pediatric ophthalmology department at Wills Eye Institute in Philadelphia, PA. He is the co-editor of the journal of Pediatric Ophthalmology and Strabismus and has authored hundreds of publications and tens of textbooks in pediatric ophthalmology.

The book is divided into 9 chapters that cover most of the important topics in almost all major areas of pediatric ophthalmology, including anomalies of the globe, cornea, iris, lens, retina, eyelid, and lacrimal system. Also, there is a chapter dedicated to strabismus disorders. Being a summary book, the book does not cover all aspects of pediatric ophthalmology but convincingly covers the most important ones. Although each chapter was contributed for by a different author, all chapters were homogenously designed with similar headings and structure. Each disease entity was properly summarized, covering information ranging from the etiology of the disorder to the most recent advances in management. The quality of illustrations was particularly impressive and was suburb throughout the book.

Criticism of this book is minor. The title of chapter one named “congenital anomalies of the eye as a whole” may not be a proper title. A suggested title could be “anomalies of the globe”. Chapter 2 titled “congenital corneal opacities” includes few sections discussing acquired and not congenital problems. Examples of sections covering such acquired problems are the sections on corneal ulcer and infection, herpes simples, herpes zoster, chicken box, and limbal keratoconjunctivitis. Accordingly, a more descriptive title for chapter 2 could be “corneal opacities” without using the term congenital. Alternatively, the few sections discussing acquired corneal problems could have been excluded from the book especially that the theme of the book seems to focus almost exclusively on congenital and developmental abnormalities.

Overall, this book accomplished its goal, providing concise, excellently illustrated, easy to read and updated summary of the most important topics in pediatric ophthalmology. It is a valuable book to have available to students, pediatricians, and pediatric and comprehensive ophthalmologists.