Editors: Robin K.S. Phillips, MBBS, FRCS and Sue Clark, MD, FRCS
Publisher: Elsevier Saunders – 315 pages
Book Review by: Nano Khilnani

This book has been produced for surgeons in higher training and for practicing specialist surgical consultants. This fifth edition offers evidence-based current, updated information that you can use as a reference source on recent developments, management issues, and operative procedures in your field of practice.

Material for the 18 chapters of this book was authored by the editors and contributors totaling 31 mainly from the United Kingdom as well as: France, Ireland, New Zealand, Singapore, and the United States.

Here’s an overview of the contents of this book:

  • Anorectal examination
  • Colonoscopy and flexible sigmoidoscopy
  • Inherited bowel cancer
  • Colonic cancer
  • Rectal cancer
  • Adjuvant therapy for colorectal cancer
  • Anal cancer
  • Diverticular disease
  • Ulcerative colitis
  • Crohn’s disease
  • Incontinence
  • Functional problems and their surgical management
  • Functional problems and their medical management
  • Anal fistula: evaluation and management
  • Minor anorectal conditions
  • Sexually transmitted diseases and the anorectum
  • Minimally invasive surgery and enhanced recovery programs in colorectal disease
  • Intestinal failure

The chapters start with an Introduction, after which topics and subtopics (in maroon color) relevant to the chapter coverage are laid out and discussed. Separate highlighted sections with single checkmarks (expert opinion) and double checkmarks (strong recommendation) are important portions for you to read and understand well.

Within many of the topics of discussion are blue color headings entitled Investigation and  Treatment.  Important items of  data are laid out in tables.

Especially noteworthy in this book are the full-color photos of parts of the gastrointestinal tract during and after surgical procedures. The pictures and their captions tell the story like nothing else. At the end of each chapter is a box entitled Key Points. Each chapter ends with a list of References for further reading and study.

How to download your eBook of this title:

  1. Go to http://online.vitalsource.com
  2. Register for a new account or sign-in if you already have a VitalSource (or PageBurst) bookshelf account.
  3. Click on the My Account tab in the far right
  4. Click Redeem and enter the Bookshelf code provided under the silver panel on the inside book cover of your book
  5. Click on the cover of the book once it is downloaded to begin reading

The content of all eight volumes of the fifth edition of the Companion to Specialist Surgical Practice is now available both in print and as part of an electronic library. Your purchase of this book allows you to download the fully searchable contents to your desktop, laptop, tablet, or smartphone.

Your eBook is more than “pictures of pages”. You can:

  • Customize your page views
  • Search in single books that you have purchased or across any volumes in the series in your collection
  • Highlight and take searchable notes, and even print and copy-and-paste with bibliographic support
  • Utilize reference lists linked where available to Medline citations (including authors, title, source, and often an abstract) to journal articles and an indication of free electronic full-text availability

To purchase other e-Books in the Companion to Specialist Surgical Practice eLibrary please visit: www.elsevierhealth.com/companionseries

Composed of contributions from experts in this field, and edited and presented by two highly expert colorectal surgeons, this book is especially valuable for all practitioners in this specialty.

Editors:
Robin K.S. Phillips, MBBS, FRCS is Professor of Colorectal Surgery at Imperial College in London, and Consultant Surgeon and Clinical Director at St. Mark’s Hospital in London.
Sue Clark, MD, FRCS (Gen.Surg) is Consultant Colorectal Surgeon at St. Marks Hospital Harrow; and Adjunct Professor of Surgery at Imperial College in London.