Seventeen years after the original, the Thieme publishing group has released the second edition of this book, in their characteristic blue and grey cover design.
This North American book is written by a ‘postulation’ of professors (or whatever the collective noun is – suggestions welcome!), who have retained a standard format and writing style throughout the work. I consider this a success, as many of the contributors are from varied professional backgrounds.
The book is clearly divided into three sections, namely ‘physiology’, ‘clinical evaluation’ and ‘diseases and treatment’. These are then carefully sub-divided into concise chapters, many of which are only a few pages long.
The second edition expands upon the first, by including new chapters on laryngeal dysfunction in sleep, FEESST, evaluation of paresis and paralysis, and management of swallowing disorders and aspiration. Furthermore, there are marvellous chapters on vocal fold augmentation, medialisation, arytenoid adduction and reinnervation.
The images and diagrams are all in a colourless, greyscale format and are of variable quality. The dissection photographs were occasionally disappointing, and some of the anatomical drawings supplied are not representative of the fine detail described in the text. Good quality colour plates would have greatly enhanced the presentation of some images, for example, serial photographs of laryngeal movement. There were also subjects for which the addition of an extra image or two would have supported understanding and retention of information. This was all forgiven, however, once I reached chapter 15, which describes vocal fold medialisation, arytenoid adduction and reinnervation. The drawings here are superb, and the text plainly outlines the various named surgical approaches in detail.
As there is a scarcity of learning material on this subject, this book compares favourably with the general reference texts such as Scott-Brown's. The comprehensive nature of this text would make it an essential purchase for those wishing to pursue specialist voice clinic work or laryngeal research. I suspect the same recommendation could be made to speech and language therapists or any member of the voice clinic multi-disciplinary team.
In summary, this is an excellent, well written book, and I wholeheartedly recommend it to those with an interest in the subject.
