Draf W, sen ed. Carrau RL, Bockmuhl U, Kassam AB, Vajkoczy P, eds. Endonasal Endoscopic Surgery of Skull Tumors: An Interdisciplinary Approach. Thieme; 2015; 362 pp; 498 ill; $189.99
With the development of new strategies for surgery of masses of the skull base, the neuroradiologist should be aware of the options, indications, and approaches that are becoming increasingly used by neurosurgeons and ENT surgeons. Enter this 325-page book Endonasal Endoscopic Surgery of Skull Tumors: An Interdisciplinary Approach, edited by Drs. Draf, Carrau, Bockmuhl, Kassam and Vajkoczy (3 of whom are otolaryngologists, and 2 of whom are neurosurgeons). The book is truly interdisciplinary in nature and because of that should be of significant interest to the neuroradiology community. Forty-seven authors, primarily European, have contributed to this well-crafted text.
In consecutive sections, the book is organized as follows:
- History of endonasal tumor surgery
- Anatomy of skull base
- Pathology/biology of skull base tumors
- Imaging and endovascular treatment
- Carotid artery management in skull base tumors
- The sinonasal corridor
- Endoscopic approaches
- Trans-ptygeroid approach
- Transphenoidal pituitary surgery
- Tumor specific strategies
- Dural reconstruction
- Complications
- Surgical results
It is not particularly the chapter on “Imaging Assessment and Endovascular Treatment” (Chapter 4) that should be of great interest to our readers — although those 45 pages are informative and properly illustrated. Rather, it is the wide area that can be approached and what specifically the skull base surgeon looks for that is most important. For example, the chapter on expanded endoscopic endonasal approaches, containing good explanations, drawings, intraoperative photographs, and adequate imaging, shows how remarkable this new surgery is.
From an imaging standpoint, the look would have been strengthened by having, in the appropriate chapters on specific approaches, what critical measurements, landmarks, and/or variations are needed in a radiology report. While reading of potential complications or noting where the instruments are placed or what the exposure is, one could conclude what needs to be in a preoperative report. Nonetheless, a box/short table containing this information could have had an impact. A sample report for a few of these tumors would have emphasized those points.
Members of the ASNR who have attended the Annual Meetings or the Symposium have heard some of the information contained in this book, but it is good to have the material together under one roof. For a hospital practice with large ENT and skull base tumor referrals, this book would be well positioned in a departmental Library.
