Dornhoffer JL, Gluth MB, eds. The Chronic Ear. Thieme; 2016; 368 pp; 472 ill; $179.99
If you ever thought that imaging of ear diseases (middle ear in particular) is challenging, then wait until you read this book. The Chronic Ear details the breadth of pathophysiology, clinical approach, and surgical management of chronic ear pathology.
The book is divided into eight sections. Section 1, “The Fundamentals of Chronic Ear Disease,” is dedicated to the fundamental principles of anatomy and physiology of ear disease. Section 2 details the clinical evaluation and office management of chronic ear disease, while Section 3 is dedicated to the various surgical techniques. In all these 3 sections, the chapters are didactic, detailed, and easy to follow. The anatomy, histology, and pathophysiology is exhaustive yet written in simple language. The pictures are very illustrative and descriptive, and the image quality is excellent. The radiographic evaluation is included in Section 2. The chapter is only a few pages but covers the most important aspects of radiologic anatomy, preoperative diagnosis, post-operative evaluation/complications, and surveillance. The figures are representative and clearly labeled, and the captions are comprehensive.
Sections 3 through 7 are dedicated to various treatment/surgical options and are presented in a round-table approach. In contradistinction to the first 3 sections, the chapters in these sections are shorter and more practical. Each section starts with a one-paragraph overview/introduction describing the issue at hand. This is followed by small subsections and short chapter discussions of the issue that include real-life cases, technique descriptions, and standardized approaches to patient selection/management. It is obvious that the editors chose a broad-minded approach in presenting the diverse literature.
Section 8 describes “Special Topics and New Horizons in Surgery for Chronic Ear Disease”. This is a very interesting part of this book. It describes new techniques such as mastoid cavity obliteration and tissue engineering among others.
Overall, this is a very comprehensive and well-structured, well-illustrated book. It definitely has a place in the library of the otolaryngology surgeon and resident. For the radiologist heavily involved in otology and skull base imaging, this is a very good and easy to follow reference. Personally, it widened my horizons and significantly increased my knowledge, yet for the general radiologist and the radiology resident, this book is way too extensive.
