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| Year : 2021 | Volume
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| Issue : 3 | Page : 177-178 |
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| Clinical pediatric surgery: A case-based interactive approach |
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Emmanuel A Ameh
Department of Surgery, Division of Paediatric Surgery, National Hospital, Abuja, Nigeria
Click here for correspondence address and email
| Date of Submission | 07-Oct-2020 |
| Date of Acceptance | 16-Feb-2021 |
| Date of Web Publication | 20-Jul-2021 |
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How to cite this article:
Ameh EA. Clinical pediatric surgery: A case-based interactive approach. Afr J Paediatr Surg 2021;18:177-8 |
Author :Sherif Emil
Pages :706
Year :2020
Publisher :CRC Press, Taylor & Francis Group, Boca Raton
Pediatric surgery has evolved over the decades and is now a well-established children's surgery specialty. Although quite a number of textbooks and handbooks and operative texts have been published in this field, the appearance of this current book on the field is important and most helpful because of its several unique features:
Layout
The layout is organized into the traditional anatomic sections making it easy to follow and to quickly locate whatever one is looking for.
The approach
The approach of the book is a highly intellectual work of an experienced and organized pediatric surgeon. The book is entirely clinically oriented and uses actual cases to discuss various conditions in an organized and interactive manner. This approach makes it interesting and engaging and maintains the attention of the reader. This makes the discussion more real-life and practical rather than theoretical, as it uses situations encountered in day-to-day practice.
Each chapter is generously illustrated. This and the use of colored pictures is user friendly and minimizes the kind of monotony that is often associated with use of black and white illustrations. This attribute would make the book popular with current young generations of medical students and trainees. The accompanying videos that are available electronically help to extend the value of the book even more. The videos are quite educative and instructive. Inclusion of actual histopathology slides (photomicoprams) makes the discussion complete and helps to put the conditions discussed in good perspective.
As pediatric surgeons care for children who are growing, providing before and after pictures helps the reader to understand the impact of surgery on the child's appearance over time.
Usefulness to medical students and trainees in Africa
The unique approach and organization makes the book a particularly useful resource for medical students and trainees, especially when revising and preparing for examinations as well as in day-to-day patient care. Already, my trainees have acknowledged the usefulness of the book. However, the book assumes that the reader already has some basic knowledge in pediatric surgery, hence the need to use this book as a companion to more traditional pediatric surgical textbooks.
Access
The book comes with a VitalSource™ code for the accompanying e-book. This is so crucial and helpful as it would make the book accessible on the go without having to carry around the large and heavy hard cover book. For users in Africa who are often quite busy, this electronic resource is most invaluable.
Limitations
Although the core of pediatric surgery is similar worldwide, there are several conditions and presentations that are peculiar to the African and low- and middle-income (LMICs) settings. Understandably, most of the differential diagnoses are high-income country focused and conditions seen in Africa and LMICs are missing. This does not limit the usefulness of the book, as these peculiar conditions and presentations are already covered in existing Africa specific pediatric surgery texts. Furthermore, the book does not cover the basic principles and physiology in pediatric surgery, but these are already well addressed in traditional textbooks.
Cost
The current cost of the hardcover book is $144.41 on Amazon® (excluding shipping). This cost may take the book out of reach of most students, trainees and providers in Africa and LMICs. I understand that the author has secured a grant that will generously offer the book at no cost to institutions in Africa and other low-income countries.
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I would recommend this book to medical students and trainees as well as established pediatric surgeons in Africa and LMICs, to be used as a companion resource to traditional pediatric surgical textbooks.
Correspondence Address:
Emmanuel A Ameh
Department of Surgery, Division of Paediatric Surgery, National Hospital, Abuja
Nigeria
 Source of Support: None, Conflict of Interest: None  | Check |
DOI: 10.4103/ajps.AJPS_150_20
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