RECONSTRUCTIVE SURGERY IN HAND MUTILATION. Edited by Guy Foucher. 205 pp. Illust. Mosby–Year Book, Inc., St. Louis; Harcourt Brace & Co. Canada, Ltd., Toronto. 1997. Can$128. ISBN 0-85317-301-0
With the advent of microsurgery, surgical management of mutilating hand injuries has been significantly modified such that formerly irretrievably injured parts may now be usefully salvaged. This applies particularly to the digits of the hand and especially to the thumb. The editor of this book has asembled a formidable group of experienced hand surgeons from Europe and North America to share their experiences in all facets of these devastating injuries. Although occasional acute injuries are depicted, the emphasis of the text is on secondary reconstruction after primary healing.
Microsurgical techniques receive deserved emphasis in this book; however, older, well-established methods of reconstruction are also emphasized, including bone lengthening by distraction, osteoplastic techniques (Nicoladoni), pollicization, judicious transposition osteotomies and so on.
The material is extremely well organized, with emphasis on thumb mutilation alone, single finger injury and multiple digit mutilations. Finally, several chapters devoted to pediatric reconstruction, psychological considerations, job retraining and prostheses are valuable and easily read. In particular, I found the chapter on psychological considerations concise and clear.
This book will be of most value to sophisticated, practising hand surgeons. However, it should be available in the library of general trauma hospitals where the sequelae of these accidents are seen. I wholeheartedly recommend this text.