Clinical and Experimental Ophthalmology 2006; 34: 800–801doi:10.1111/j.1442-9071.2006.01376.x

© 2006 The AuthorsJournal compilation © 2006 Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Ophthalmologists

Book Reviews

Austin McCormick MRCOphthDepartment of Ophthalmology, University of Auckland, Auckland,

New Zealand

Surgical Anatomy around the Orbit: The System of Zones

Barry M Zide

Philadelphia, PA: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, 2006.130 pp. $AU224.00. ISBN: 0-7817-5081-4.

This book is a revision of a similar publication in 1985,by the same author, from the Institute of ReconstructiveSurgery – New York University Medical Center. It pre-sents the surgical anatomy of the forehead, periorbitalregion, cheek and orbit that is relevant to a facial plasticsurgeon.

There are eight chapters: 1. Topography, Bones, Vessels,Sensory Nerves; 2. The Facial Nerve – Cranial Nerve VII; 3.The Lower Eyelid and Beyond; 4. Retro-orbicularis Oculi Fat(ROOF) and Beyond (Supero-lateral Zone); 5. SuperomedialZone; 6. Supraorbital Nerve – Nuances/Dissections fromAbove; 7a. Special Section Introduction, 7b Lower LidRetractors, 7c Lockwood’s Ligament/Whitnall’s Ligament, 7dSome Thoughts on Orbicularis Oculi, 7e Floor of the Orbitand Course of the Infraorbital Nerve, 7f Intranasal; 8. NerveBlocks 101. Included is a CD-ROM with all the illustrationsaccessed via easy-to-use software.

Information is presented in the form of intraoperativephotographs, cadaver prosection photographs, diagrams andtext boxes. As well as traditional topics like the VIIth nervethis edition of the book has been updated to include theanatomy of endoscopic brow lifts, sub orbicularis oculi fatlifts and mid face lifts among others.

The book reads like a collection of surgical teachingpoints and relevant anatomical facts. This is often how weaccumulate surgical knowledge in apprentice-based training.This book presents the author’s pertinent thoughts on facialanatomy, and its surgical relevance to facial plastic surgery,very well. Many find learning through diagrams and imageseasier than through text and this is well satisfied by thevariety and number of illustrations.

I do have some criticisms of the book. Although theinformation in the text boxes is informative, in the absenceof passages of text to tie them in together, I feel the booklacks structure in parts. I do not find the lower eyelid retrac-tor section as clear as it could be and it might be improvedby more operative photographs. There is no index, the textis not referenced and there are a higher-than-expected num-ber of typographical errors.

In spite of some negative points this book merits consid-eration for cosmetic facial plastic surgeons as an addition toa reference library.

Blackwell Publishing AsiaMelbourne, AustraliaCEOClinical and Experimental Ophthalmology1442-6404© 2006 The Author; Journal compilation ©2006 Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Ophthalmologists? 2006348••••Book ReviewBook ReviewsBook Reviews

The Cornea: Scientific Foundations and Clinical Practice (Fourth Edition)

C Stephen Foster, Dimitri T Azar and Claes H Dohlman (eds)

Philadelphia, PA: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, 2005.1323 pp. $AU466.40. ISBN: 0-7817-4206-4.

This is a sizeable textbook written by acknowledged worldauthorities in the field of cornea and external eye disease.The book does not make light reading in the physical sense,being rather substantial and running to some 1300 pluspages, and therefore is designed more for reference than forreading cover to cover. However, having dipped into severalchapters the content certainly justifies the size, being fairlycomprehensive in nature including sections on basic science,examination techniques, a wide range of cornea and externaleye disease and aspects of kerato-refractive surgery.

The editors have chosen the authors well and generallythe book is both well written and readable although I havereservations about the quality of the diagrams and tables,which are often reminiscent of much older publications.There are extensive references in each section though it isnotable, for a book published in 2005, that in some chap-ters there are only a limited number of references from2000 onwards. The book suffers most from a lack of colourillustrations in the body of the text with all of the colourimages constrained to a section at the end of the bookcontaining some 189 colour images, which vary consider-ably in quality.

Although well written and certainly a useful adjunct toany ophthalmic library, unfortunately, compared with con-temporary rival texts in the field, as a single stand alonecorneal reference text this book is badly let down by thequality of the black and white illustrations, variable qualitydiagrams and the lack of colour in the main body of the text.Overall, despite the quality of the contributors, the finalproduction standard of the book is a major weakness, havingthe appearance and style of a book published in the 1980srather than 2005.

Charles NJ McGhee FRANZCO PhDDepartment of Ophthalmology, University of Auckland, Auckland,

New Zealand