The essentials of nursing. Nursing the adult with a specific phsyiological disturbance. Patricia Hunt and Bernice Sendell. 295.205 mm. Pp. 238+xv. Illustrated. 1983. London: Macmillan Press. £6.95

Abstract

The authors of this volume are to be commended for their attempt to bring together a book on practical breast surgery. They have succumbed to the temptation to include reconstructive surgery of the chest wall and even less rationally the use of the Bakamjian and pectoralis major myocutaneous flaps in head and neck construction; but it is as a book on breast surgery that this publication must be judged.The illustrations are all in black and white, either line drawings or photographs, and for the most part make their point clear although this is not invariably the case.The strongest and longest sections of the book are those related to augmentation and reduction mammoplasty; the weakest relate to disease processes. The authors rightly deplore the use of subcutaneous mastectomy and prosthetic insertion for invasive breast cancer but their approach to prophylactic mastectomy is less secure. The device of parallel descriptions in English and French is clearly an attempt to reach a wider audience than would be permitted by a book in their native tongue. The rather literal translations lead to some unfamiliar phrasing, excessive verbosity and rather too many spelling errors: I still have not decided whether the effect is endearing or aggravating.Although this book adequately covers its self-imposed task I doubt if this publication fills an empty niche in British surgical literature since it is inadequate for the plastic surgeon and remains mostly irrelevant to general surgery as practised in the United Kingdom.