Description

This is a remarkable book. Of its 150 pages, only 35.5 are text while 82 are made up of the 205 illustrations, of which almost 200 are radiographs. These x-rays are the real purpose of the book and represent the paediatric ERCP experience of Dr Guelrud in Venezuela. I am not sure of the precise contribution of the other authors. Despite what might be regarded as an imbalance between text and pictures, however, the book is an enjoyable read and also contains 20 pages of useful references, even if one or two are duplicates and one is inevitably disappointed by the odd favourite reference which is omitted. The book is up-to-date in the sense that references are included up to 1996 with a publication date of late 1997. There is sensible advice about sedation and monitoring for paediatric ERCP and I am interested that Dr Guelrud now seems to have adopted general anaesthesia which was not his opinion last time I spoke to him on the subject. The short text and the fact that ERCP is still performed relatively rarely in children does mean that there is a slightly uncritical, look what Ive done style to the book and a critical analysis of the place of ERCP in diagnosis compared to ultrasound, CT and MRCP and its place in therapy compared to surgery or drugs as in, for example sclerosing cholangitis is not really discussed. There are good attempts at including data from the adult literature to back up what had been attempted in children but it is apparent that if this is the state-of-the-art (and I believe it is) that it is at present a somewhat primitive art. So, a beautiful book to look at but the arcane world of paediatric ERCP is not for everyone. I found the book fascinating and I will look at it regularly, but then I have a rather unusual predilection for paediatric and neonatal ERCP, which is unlikely to be the case for the majority of the readers of this journal, consequently I think few consultant gastroenterologists will want to shell out ??75. Similarly, few paediatricians or radiologists will see sufficient cases to make purchase of the book a high priority. It should therefore, be mainly bought for institutional libraries, which is a shame because it is a lovely book.