Acta Neurochir (Wien) (2008) 150: 99

DOI 10.1007/s00701-007-1450-4

Printed in The Netherlands

Book ReviewAdvances in functional and reparative neurosurgery

Chang JW, Katayama Y, Yamamoto T (eds) (2006) Acta

Neurochirurgica Suppl. 99. Advances in functional and reparative neu-

rosurgery. Springer, Wien New York U.K., 150 pp, $ 119.00

This book is a supplement to Acta Neurochirurgica and covers the

official biennial conference of Neurorehabilitation section of the World

Federation of Neurological Surgeons in conjunction with the first con-

gress of the International Society of Reconstructive Neurosurgery. This

meeting was held in Seoul in September 2005.

Functional Neurosurgery is a rapidly evolving field with increasing

diversification as technologies such as neuro modulation are applied to

an increasingly wide range of neurological pathologies. Alternative

technologies such as gene therapy, stem cell therapies, targeted drug

delivery and nanotechnology make it increasingly difficult for only one

individual to keep abreast of new developments and applications.

This volume covers papers presented at the conference on involuntary

movement disorders, pain control, epilepsy, cell transplantations and

spinal cord disease. The book begins with a review of neuro rehabilita-

tion focusing on higher cortical function with the aim of restoring higher

cortical skills after acute brain injury. It is an interesting topic to begin

with and is highly relevant since there is little work connecting clinically

deliverable strategies for rehabilitation with therapies to enhance plas-

ticity and promote repair. The subsequent section on movement disor-

ders focuses on the use of neuro modulation in less commonly

recognised situations such as understanding thalamic and multi cortical

function and the management of dystonias including rare pathologies

such as camptocormia.

The section on cell transplantation somewhat inevitably refers to the

subject of stem cell therapy. Animal models of acute stroke and brain

injury are used and the possible therapeutic applications of stem cells are

discussed. However, this field still has a long way to go before clinical

application is a realistic possibility.

Given the speed with which the science in these areas is moving

some of these articles have already been superseded. Nevertheless,

this book would represent a useful addition to a neurosurgical li-

brary particularly one aiming to explore the breadth of neurosurgical

innovation.

Colin Watts

Department of Neurosurgery

Addenbrooke’s Hospital

Box 167, Cambridge CB2 0QQ, U.K.

e-mail: cw209@cam.ac.uk