Mackinnon SE. Nerve Surgery. Thieme; 2015; 645 pp; 879 ill; $299.99
Dr. Susan Mackinnon is a world-renowned expert in all aspects of peripheral nerve injury and repair, from basic science to surgery and clinical treatment to clinical discovery. She has served as Professor and Chair of Plastic Surgery at Washington University School of Medicine for almost two decades.
As an author of more than 500 articles in numerous areas of nerve injury and repair, she is likely best known for her work on the development of nerve allograft repair with immunosuppression, the understanding of tubular nerve repair strategies, and more recently, nerve transfers. She co-authored a book with Lee Dellon in the late 80s on peripheral nerve surgery, and the current textbook, now almost 30 years later, is a much-needed update on and advance in the field.
The book is organized into sections, going from basic science and anatomy and physiology of nerve repair to the concept of nerve grafting. As opposed to the previous text, there is a real focus on nerve transfers, a relatively new area of peripheral nerve surgery. The text is extremely well-organized and of enormous value as a reference text for any practitioner involved in nerve repair.
The neuroradiology aspects of this book are relatively minor and limited—mostly to images of tumors of the peripheral nervous system. The area of imaging of nerve injuries is really a sub-subspecialty within this field of neuroradiology and is essentially not covered in this text.
The text does cover many of the surgical aspects of peripheral nerve repair, including (but not limited to) direct nerve repair, nerve graft, and nerve transfers. It includes entrapment neuropathies as well as tendon transfers for functional recovery.
The images are excellent and clearly labeled. Only a few are taken from the original text and are clearly cross-referenced. The references are well-organized and comprehensive.
I would recommend this textbook to practitioners within disciplines that involve nerve repair, which include plastic surgery, orthopedic surgery, neurosurgery, ENT, general surgery, and oral maxillofacial surgery. Neuroradiologists who have a special interest in nerve injury would also find this a fascinating reference text that surveys the current field.
