This new, hardback, colour textbook on head and neck reconstruction has been written by the well respected Mark Urken from New York. It is over 800 pages long and is crammed full of colour clinical photographs on high quality gloss paper.

The book represents the fruits of the author's considerable clinical experience over the past 20 years or so. The chapters are largely based on site-specific reconstruction techniques. While the majority of defects result from neoplastic disease, there is a chapter at the end dedicated to trauma reconstruction and also a chapter on paediatric cases, both of which would also be of interest to our maxillo-facial colleagues. Three initial chapters deal with special topics related to the head and neck patient, including issues around nutrition, vascular access and complications of free tissue transfer.

The format of the chapters is based on a description of basic principles and considerations for reconstruction in particular areas, followed by detailed case studies including descriptions of the patient's clinical course, illustrated with staged clinical photographs. There are some helpful classification systems, largely based on Urken's own experience; therefore, they may not be familiar to most readers.

While this textbook eloquently describes the management of dozens of challenging cases, it is not intended as a ‘How I do it’ style text. If you don't know how to do a free radial forearm flap, then you still won't after reading this book. You will however gain an understanding of the different scenarios in which it can be used. Urken admits himself, in the preface, that the book is not an exhaustive description of all possible reconstruction techniques, but is biased towards those techniques that he has found successful over the years.

One of my immediate observations on opening the book was that some of the photos appeared quite dark and sometimes blurred, making a full analysis difficult. I have seen better picture quality elsewhere. However, most of the line diagrams are excellent.

In essence, this is a hugely detailed and colourful descriptive case series. It may help some surgeons in their decision-making process. It does however have some minor flaws, which make it difficult to recommend as an operative textbook. The many colour photos mean that this is quite an expensive book, which would appeal more perhaps to the established head and neck surgeon skilled in the various techniques described, rather than the trainee who is still learning.