Schwartz’s Principles of Surgery, F. Charles Brunicardi, Dana K. Andersen, Timothy R. Billiar, David L. Dunn, John G. Hunter, Jeffrey B. Matthews, Raphael E. Pollock (Eds)

Excerpt

At 10 pounds (!) this book cannot be recommended to anyone who just had an inguinal hernia repaired. Whether it can induce a hernia is debatable. So I schlep this book (we’ll call it Schwartz’s from now on) all the way along the dirt road from the mailbox, drop it on the table, and pause to reduce my bulging hernia (later I was relieved to find out that according to Schwartz’s, p. 1331, this nonoperative approach to my own hernia is a reasonable option). The glossy and colorful book, with a beautiful image on its front cover, showing two young laparoscopic surgeons—one of them sporting a multicolor scrub cap—doing something in the vicinity of the liver, overwhelms my senses. I am also greatly impressed, if not intimidated, by the editors’ names on the cover (all distinguished chairpersons of surgery, or vice-chairpersons, or chairpersons who later became vice-presidents) and, the long list of contributors to the various sections and chapters (most, if not all, well-known and well-published experts in their respective fields). …