Surgical Anatomy of the Heart

As a practising adult cardiothoracic surgeon with years of experience in the Operating Room, I was eager to delve into this textbook of surgical anatomy. The stated goal of the authors is to meet the"need for more detailed understanding of the basic anatomy" of the heart. In this 3rd edition, they have added a chapter on cardiac valvular anatomy, and have expanded the treatment of coronary vascular anatomy, while adding more illustrations. Their work has paid dividends, making this a most complete work. The authors are well-regarded, experienced surgeons and an anatomical pathologist, a natural association for this undertaking. The writers strive for anatomical precision and surgical relevance, and this goal is met. The book is divided into 10 chapters, each liberally illustrated with photographs and antomical cartoons. The authors describe various surgical approaches to the heart, and proceed to describe the normal anatomy of the cardiac chambers. Separate chapters are devoted to the anatomy of the heart valves, the conducting system, coronary anatomy and variations, congenitally-malformed hearts, great vessel anomalies, positional variants, and so forth. The writing is clear and precise. Terminology and classifications are explained, and often illustrated. The photographs and drawings are colored and of high quality. This book is a great reference text, not one for browsing. One of its assets is that the authors point out surgical pitfalls while they are describing the anatomical landmarks. References are a bit outdated (most are from the 1970s and 1980s), with few from 2000 and beyond. This is not terribly important however. This book should appeal to the experienced CT surgeon and to the trainee, as well as to the interventional cardiologist (particularly if he does intracardiac work), to the cardiac anesthesiologist who performs intraop TEE, and to the surgical pathologist. I love this book and it has a favoured place in my library.

Thi sbook is beyond my expectations. Despite the expensive price it's all made with pictures and simple samples.