Reviewer: Krishna G Putchakayala, MD (Henry Ford Hospital)
Description: This is a succinct, yet comprehensive, technical overview of liver, kidney, and intestinal transplant that covers the preoperative evaluation, operative technique, perioperative management, postoperative complications, and pertinent infection/immunology, including helpful clinical correlation. The writing style/presentation is current and highly engaging.
Purpose: The practice patterns in this field are highly variable between centers, and the literature is broad and of variable quality. The purpose of this book is to provide a comprehensive overview of abdominal solid organ transplantation. It is essential as a single resource for transplant professionals.
Audience: The intended audience includes surgeons, physicians, scientists, students, and nurses. It is most relevant for surgeons involved in multiorgan transplant, but it also would be an excellent resource for physician assistants or nurse practitioners working on a transplant service. It could be of interest to other, associated physicians including transplant nephrologists, transplant hepatologists, and transplant anesthesiologists. It is most likely too technical for students, residents, scientists, or nurses in general.
Features: The book covers all essential considerations for liver, kidney, and intestinal transplant beginning from donor evaluation to postoperative care. Compared to other books in the field, this is much more succinct and approachable. The writing style is engaging, and the content is both up-to-date and unbiased. Even a dry subject like pathology and immunology is engaging because the authors do a good job of balancing facts with clinical correlation/interpretation. In addition, the book points out areas of controversy where readers can review the literature to reach their own conclusions rather than simply presenting an author's opinion as fact. The images are well placed and presented and contribute considerably to the content of the book. The only shortcoming is the way pancreas is presented almost as an afterthought.
Assessment: This book will replace the other resources I have used thus far in transplant surgery because it is so comprehensive and succinct. And, I am actually able to stay awake reading it and it helps me understand what areas I should read more about in journals. The three books it will replace are Primer on Transplantation, 3rd edition, Hricik (Wiley-Blackwell, 2011), Kidney and Pancreas Transplantation, Molmenti (Jaypee Brothers, 2015), and Transplantation of the Liver, 3rd edition, Busuttil and Klintmalm (Elsevier, 2014).
This is a succinct, yet comprehensive, technical overview of liver, kidney, and intestinal transplant that covers the preoperative evaluation, operative technique, perioperative management, postoperative complications, and pertinent infection/immunology, including helpful clinical correlation. … The intended audience includes surgeons, physicians, scientists, students, and nurses. It is most relevant for surgeons involved in multiorgan transplant, but it also would be an excellent resource for physician assistants or nurse practitioners working on a transplant service.” (Krishna G. Putchakayala, Doody’s Book Reviews, November, 2015)