This is a very well produced, hardback textbook on endoscopic sinus surgery (ESS). The authors are quite explicit in their aims. They set out to produce a book to highlight potential pitfalls in ESS, and to give advice on avoiding problems and optimising patient outcomes.

This therefore gives the textbook a different feel from most others, which may be more didactic in their handling of the subject. This book, of well over 300 pages, calls on the collective experience of over 30 international contributors to provide the reader with a very specific text on the practical aspects of ESS and the handling of its potential problems.

The book is well written, and each chapter is populated with numerous tables, clinical photos and radiological images. Generally, these are of a high quality, although occasionally some smaller images are less easy to interpret. A nice feature of some chapters is a table of common pitfalls and errors and how to avoid them, culminating in an evidence-based summary of the chapter author's principles of evaluation, management and therapy. Other chapters include case studies to illustrate salient points.

As is common nowadays, this book is accompanied by a DVD. This includes short videos associated with individual chapters. An icon in the margin of the text directs the reader to the relevant section on the DVD. Again, the quality is generally good, although some clips are slightly blurred and navigating the DVD menu is not intuitive. One video clip entitled ‘set up cables’ appears to demonstrate the technique of applying a head drape.

However, these are minor points in an otherwise excellent textbook which achieves its goal, and which should be considered by all who undertake regular ESS.