Modern Surgical Pathology, Second Edition

Abstract

2-Volume Set, Noel Weidner, Richard J. Cote, Saul Suster, Lawrence M. Weiss Saunders Elsevier Copyright © 2009 2432 pages, $459.00 This is the second edition of a multiauthored text covering general surgical pathology. Such texts are useful to trainees, general surgical pathologists, and specialists who are called upon to make a diagnosis outside their own field. Factors that make a book useful for such applications include both the quality of the content and its accessibility. Most of the chapters are well written, each by one or more experts in the field. The content is quite good (I only found 4 minor errors). All organs are covered, and only a few disorders are not; the illustrations are generally quite good and suitable in number. The index is useful. The 2-volume set (7.5 kg/16.5 lb) begins with chapters on general subjects ranging from gross room setup to molecular biology that are worth reading; the most useful are those on intraoperative consultation, quality improvement, and medicolegal issues. The immunohistochemistry chapter provides good general approaches, particularly for fans of algorithms, but integration of immunohistochemistry into diagnoses needs to be covered in the organ-specific chapters. The book then covers the organ systems. This is …