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- Department of Neurosurgery, Maastricht University Medical Center, Netherlands
Correspondence Address:
Pieter L. Kubben
Department of Neurosurgery, Maastricht University Medical Center, Netherlands
DOI:
Copyright: © 2012 Kubben PL This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.How to cite this article: Kubben PL. The Neurosurgeon's Handbook. Surg Neurol Int 14-Dec-2012;3:153
How to cite this URL: Kubben PL. The Neurosurgeon's Handbook. Surg Neurol Int 14-Dec-2012;3:153. Available from: http://sni.wpengine.com/surgicalint_articles/the-neurosurgeons-handbook/
The Neurosurgeon's Handbook by George Samandouras has been published in 2010, but still seems to be relatively unknown compared to Greenberg's Handbook of Neurosurgery. The book has already been reviewed on the AJNR blog,[
Indeed, the book lacks the amount of detail that can be found in the Greenberg. This could be considered as a weakness, but to my opinion it is also a strength. Reading (studying) in the Greenberg feels like reading a phone book to me. I like the book as a reference, but it is not a resource I like to study from. Samandouras’ book is different: it is readable. Based on board requirements in the USA, UK and Europe, the book contains content that covers the whole field, without focusing too much on surgical procedures.
I found the book pleasant to use as a first resource to prepare for my written EANS exams, for which I recently passed in the first attempt. For details in clinical neurosurgery, I grab the Greenberg, or a more surgically oriented resource (like Kempe's Operative Neurosurgery, for example). All books have their place. Nevertheless, as a resident starting a career in neurosurgery, I think you’ll benefit more from Samandouras’ handbook than from Greenbergs's. Simply because it is actually readable. It gives you a framework, which I think is mandatory before zooming in on details.
There are some small typing errors in the book, but they don’t distract from the content and can be corrected in a future version. So actually I would give it 4.5 star – rounded to 5!.
References
1. Last accessed on 2012 Oct 03. Available from: http://www.ajnrblog.org/2010/05/13/the-neurosurgeonshandbook/ .
2. Last accessed on 2012 Oct 03. Available from: http://www.amazon.com/The-Neurosurgeons-Handbook-George-Samandouras/product-reviews/0198570678 .
