Nearly ten years have passed since the last handbook on head injury was published. During that interval, interest in the subject has increased substantially, and clinical and surgical management and methods for evaluating prognosis for patients with head injury have changed. The 27 concise, well-organized chapters are based on the clinical experience of two scholarly neurosurgeons. Topics such as intracranial pressure dynamics, new radiological techniques for diagnosis (including the computed tomographic scanner), and methods used to predict outcome are discussed in detail. The chapters on intracranial hemorrhage, cranial nerve injuries, and the vascular complications of head trauma are especially good, and the chapter on the legal aspects and ramifications of treating this patient group is interesting and timely.
The book is well written and nicely illustrated. Unfortunately, the references are highly selective, and only one of the several hundred cited was published during the past two years. Thus, the volume