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Surgical Transcriptions and Pearls in Obstetrics and Gynaecology

2nd Edition

This book is clearly a labour of love by a very experienced and versatile obstetrician and gynaecological surgeon. Dr Turrentine is an American physician who has spent many years performing a wide variety of operations and the impression obtained from reading this book is one of thoroughness born out of experience.

The text itself comprises detailed descriptions of over 100 operations (the vast majority gynaecological), their indications and, as the title suggests, some of the author's experiences and helpful hints.

In reference book terms it is compact, with only 200 pages, and it includes minute detail of the various procedures. This might be useful for someone embarking on a career in obstetrics and gynaecology, if only to familiarise themselves with the complexities and wide variety of pelvic surgery, including the numerous instruments and devices employed.

I have no doubt that for students and trainees in the formative years of their training in the USA this book will provide a succinct and detailed account of the numerous procedures a practising gynaecologist may have to employ. Any trainee wishing to describe an operation in precise detail from start to finish could do little better than to refer to this book for an overview. However, the fact still remains that this is an American book written for, in my opinion, an American audience and this is the overwhelming feeling obtained when reading it.

Inexperienced trainees could fall into the trap of thinking that the methods described are the only or, perhaps, the best way to perform a particular operation. As with all things medical and surgical, however, there are numerous methods employed to achieve the same result and this is partially acknowledged by the author in his accompanying notes. Another criticism is that many of the operations he describes, particularly in the field of vaginal and prolapse surgery, are now historical. The majority of up-and-coming trainees in the UK will not have heard of them and are unlikely to see them performed, unless by a subspecialist, and even then very rarely.

Having asked a senior and junior colleague for their opinion, we concluded that we were unsure what type of book the author intended this to be. Was the intention to focus on current gynaecological surgery or was it to describe every single operation ever performed? I would be more interested if many of the obsolete procedures were removed and illustrations used with the more commonly performed operations. However, there are no diagrams of any sort. They would undoubtedly have been a good accompaniment to the text but they would, of course, have increased the size of the book considerably. Equally, the operation transcriptions are unnecessarily verbose and it is easy to lose your place in the text. I appreciate that including fine details on carrying out some procedures may be beneficial when starting from scratch, but I found it became tiresome after a while. A better approach might have been to adopt bullet points, akin to the way most British surgeons complete their operation notes, which would not have detracted from the transcriptions being accurate and complete. Also, this approach would not leave the surgeon open to criticism or medicolegal concerns.

Overall, I would not recommend this book to a student or junior doctor embarking on a career in obstetrics and gynaecology in the UK. It is detached from the way we instruct our trainees and there are other reference books that are more user friendly. I just feel that the UK and US systems are too divergent to achieve success with the book over here.

Roobin Jokhi, BMedSci (Hons) MRCOG, Clinical Research Fellow and Specialist Registrar in Obstetrics and Gynaecology¹

^1. Royal Hallamshire Hospital, Sheffield, UK

Informa Healthcare, 2006
ISBN 9780415397704
Hardcover, 200 pages, £55.00

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