TUMOR SURGERY OF THE HEAD AND NECK.

By Robert S. Pollack '38. Philadelphia: Lea & Febiger, 1957. 101 pp. & 112illus. $5.00.

Surgery of tumors of the head and neck has come into its own as a bona fide surgical specialty only in recent years. Formerly an area haphazardly divided among general surgeons, plastic surgeons, dentists, and otorhinolaryngologists, the literature dealing with surgical technique in this difficult field appeared in fragments in journals and texts devoted to these specialties. With this volume, Dr. Pollack has done the surgical fraternity a real favor by presenting in one piece a review of the entire field. This he is well qualified to do by virtue of excellent training and wide experience.

Any treatise on surgical technique rises or falls on the value of its illustrations. The figures in this book are excellent. Simple black and white line and shaded drawings are complete, clear, accurate, and to the point.

In his introduction, Dr. Pollack defines the scope of his book as dealing entirely with tumor surgery of the head and neck. He further narrows his target by "taking for granted" basic surgical knowledge in his readers. This is most refreshing and entirely legitimate, enabling the author to step right into his subject after only sixteen short pages of introductory material. Many medical authors of specialty texts feel it necessary to review their subject from its most elementary aspect, and only after several long chapters feel free to embark on their real theme. In this instance one can only praise Dr. Pollack for resisting this temptation and only fault him for yielding sixteen pages worth.

The text accompanying the illustrations is brief and concise, as promised by the author in his preface. This, too, is a refreshing departure in medical literature. There is enough written to explain adequately the figures and to justify the procedures. In addition, significant differences of opinion regarding the philosophy or technique of an operation are generously alluded to, with a well-chosen bibliography at the end of each section amplifying the text. The author modestly disclaims any originality of idea or technique expressed in his book, but anyone with experience in this field knows that Dr. Pollack has contributed significantly and originally to the surgical literature of tumor surgery of the head and neck. He has obviously carried these contributions over into his text so that differences in philosophy and technique then strike close to home. It is again refreshing to find an author blowing all horns, not only his own.

Any surgeon worth his salt has his own way of doing things. One could pick through detail in this book and come up with minor challenges as to accuracy of text or figure-Suffice it to say that such are indeed minor and that the author has accomplished well what he set out to do - to describe and picture briefly and concisely in one volume the technique of surgery of tumors of the head and neck.