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2 0 0 3 B J U I N T E R N A T I O N A L | 9 2 , 8 2 1 | doi:10.1046/j.1464-410X.2003.04485.x

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Blackwell Science, LtdOxford, UKBJUBJU International1464-410XBJU InternationalNovember 2003927

Book review

BOOK REVIEWS BOOK REVIEWS

FAST FACTS – UROLOGY HIGHLIGHTS 2002–2003

Edited by J. Shah, Healthpress Ltd, Oxford, 2003; ISBN 1903734355. Paperback, 116 pp. £15.00

Each urologist would need to read about 19 articles per day to keep abreast of new reports within their specialities, such is the rate of publication in science. Clearly, this is a huge time commitment that is simply not practical for the busy urologist. Therefore, this book is a welcome solution to the problem. The book is well written and fairly comprehensive. The wide range of topics are easy to read and written by international experts relevant to that field. The seventh volume has 11 chapters, dealing with BPH, prostate cancer, bladder cancer, penile cancer, RCC, neurourology and urodynamics, female urology, urological pain syndromes, reconstructive urology, stone disease and minimally invasive surgery, and andrology and sexual dysfunction.

Each chapter ends with a useful list of what’s in, what’s out, what’s new and what’s controversial. Most readers will probably not wish to commit all the details of each chapter to memory. Therefore, this useful list is excellent for a quick update and a reference guide. There are also many references at the end of each chapter for a book of this size, and this correlates with the detail of the text. One drawback of the book is the lack of a glossary and an index. However, the book is definitely worth reading as a quick way of updating oneself with the recent advances in urology.

JYOTI SHAH

HANDBOOK OF TRANSRECTAL ULTRASOUND AND BIOPSY OF THE PROSTATE

By U. Patel and D. Rickards, Martin Dunitz, 2002; ISBN 1841841927. Paperback £24.95, 128pp

The authors have produced this Handbook in recognition of the increasing demand and considerable service expansion that is expected in the area of prostate cancer in the coming years. The handbook is written with this expansion in mind and recognizing that the expanding field in future may encompass not only urologists and radiologists, but also paramedical staff, specialist nurses and ultrasonographers. The authors set out to present a comprehensive background to the performance of TRUS of the prostate and biopsy in sufficient detail that a practitioner should be able to devise and run a safe, accurate prostate-assessment clinic on the basis of the information provided. The handbook is indeed comprehensive and covers all the basic areas, e.g. the physics of TRUS and the anatomy of the prostate, as well as reviewing common benign conditions and biopsies for suspected prostate cancer. The authors’ style is clear, and the information well presented and comprehensive. The book is well illustrated with simple and clear diagrams, as well as adequate examples of the various findings on TRUS. Advanced practitioners will note some inaccuracies in the histological description of the transition zone as the ‘transitional zone’, and references to the older model of an inner and outer gland, which was popular in the past, but these minor shortcomings should not detract from what is a clear and well-illustrated book.

While the overall content and description in the book is of a high standard, there are some

areas that clinicians experienced in TRUS will find less than satisfactory. In the section that deals with prostatitis there are clear statements on the TRUS appearance expected with this condition. Most urologists would accept that there is no specific TRUS finding in prostatitis, and the patterns are often of mixed hypo- and hyperechoic areas, and unreliable.

In their approach to patients with suspected prostate cancer the authors clearly outline the main diagnostic dilemmas, including the various biopsy strategies undertaken to increase the detection of cancer; the diagrams related to placing the needle in the prostate during biopsies are particularly clear and informative. Many urologists will be puzzled on finding a section about TRUS and biopsy after radical prostatectomy. The case for biopsy after radical prostatectomy is not clear; a negative biopsy in this situation can be attributed to a sampling error and a positive biopsy does not exclude metastases elsewhere, and therefore many clinicians find this procedure particularly unhelpful in patients with suspected disease recurrence after radical prostatectomy.

However, these criticisms are minor and overall the book is well written and comprehensive, with a good coverage of the important areas in TRUS and biopsy of the prostate. The diagrams and ultrasonograms are clear and helpful, and while this book is aimed primarily at those with little experience of TRUS and biopsy, it achieves what the authors set out to do, in that it gives a comprehensive grounding in the basics of TRUS, and will be of value to practitioners undertaking TRUS and biopsy of the prostate as a new procedure.

DAMIAN GREENE