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Basic Ophthalmology

Article  in  Acta Ophthalmologica · August 2006

DOI: 10.1111/j.1600-0420.2006.00598.x

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Book Reviews
Cynthia A. Bradford, Executive Editor
Basic Ophthalmology
8th edition
219 pages
American Academy of Ophthalmology,
2004
ISBN 1 56055 361 8
Price: £35.00
doi: 10.1111/j.1600-0420.2006.00598.x
Basic Ophthalmology stems from the
publication by the American Academy
of Ophthalmology of a study guide in
outline form for medical students.
Aimed at medical students and pri-
mary health care personnel and doc-
tors, the book was an instant success
and became a widely used ophthalmo-
logy reference book.
The new edition of Basic Ophthalmol-
ogy is structured around seven common
problem areas in ophthalmology: acute
visual loss; chronic visual loss; the red
eye; ocular and orbital injuries; ambly-
opia and strabismus; neuro-ophthalmo-
logy, and ocular manifestations of
systemic diseases. In addition, the first
chapter outlines the main elements
involved in examination of the eye. The
last chapter focuses on drugs and the
eye. The photographs in the book are
superb, as are the drawings, and the lay-
out is attractive – although the front
page is slightly drab.
Any book with relatively few pages
that attempts to take on such a task for
non-ophthalmic readers will obviously
not delve deeply into ophthalmic dis-
eases themselves. The approach used
here is therefore very successful. It
focuses on practical issues, drawings,
Frank G. Holz and Richard F. Spaide,
Editors
Medical Retina
In: Essentials in Ophthalmology
G. K. Krieglstein and R. N. Weinreb,
Series Editors
186 pages
Springer, 2005
ISBN 3-540-22596-X
Price: Hardcover EUR 89.95
doi: 10.1111/j.1600-0420.2005.00645.x
This book on medical retina is part of
the series Essentials in Ophthalmology,
View publication stats
Acta Ophthalmologica Scandinavica 2006
pictures and diagrams, as well as use-
ful ‘points to remember’. A standard-
ized approach involving headings,
such as ‘when to examine’ and ‘how
to examine’, makes the reader feel
comfortable with the text. It is clearly
aimed at the busy primary care doc-
tor, who cannot devote lengthy peri-
ods into looking for the facts. At the
same time, it offers the medical stu-
dent precious clinical information in
the form of case reports, or ‘sample
problems’. In addition, the book lists
major references on each subject at
the end of each chapter for readers
who wish to pursue a particular topic.
Overall, the authors and editor give a
very comprehensive insight into the
field of basic ophthalmology.
The anatomy of the eye is described
very briefly in the first chapter – per-
haps a little too briefly – but in the
following chapters, more thorough
explanation is given to the various
structures of the eye that fail in partic-
ular ophthalmic emergencies. This
may be practical in the primary care
setting, but might be slightly disorient-
ing for the medical student. The anat-
omy of the orbit and the optic cup
are well discussed, for example, but
the layers of the cornea and retina
receive little attention. The chapters
are well defined and most diseases and
treatments are clearly described.
Updates have been added accordingly,
on, for example, the latest treatment
modalities for macular degeneration.
There is no major downside to this
book, but there are several minor ones.
The book is directed towards primary
edited by Krieglstein and Weinreb.
Holz and Spaide have done an excel-
lent job with the book. It is short and
yet manages to give a comprehensive
update on most new developments in
the field of medical retina. Its 180 easy-
to-read pages include good illustrations
and excellent summarizing paragraphs.
The text even manages to dip into the
basic mechanisms of age-related macu-
lar disease and autofluorescence to give
the reader not only a practical review
from the clinical standpoint, but also
some insight into the underlying basic
science.
care personnel rather than medical stu-
dents. This is not necessarily a down-
side, although this should be explained
on the back cover. Another issue with
the book concerns its different empha-
sis on disease groups. In addition to
the common lack of discussion of dry
eye in the chapter on the red eye, the
comparison (by table) of the disease
entities that cause the condition lacks
one of the most common causes of a
red eye, blepharitis. This is very com-
mon in basic textbooks in ophthalmo-
logy and should be corrected in future
editions. In the chapter on chronic vis-
ual loss, macular degeneration is dis-
cussed considerably less thoroughly
than it deserves, with mention of ‘wet’
disease, but not ‘dry’ disease. Con-
versely, optic nerve diseases are per-
haps given too much attention, with
coverage under both ‘Acute visual loss’
as well as ‘Neuro-ophthalmology’.
Understand-ably, details of treatment
after referral to the ophthalmologist
are largely omitted. However, a brief
description of cataract surgery, with
mention of the insertion of an artificial
lens, seems appropriate in such a book,
given the high incidence of cataract
surgery in our part of the world.
The last chapter on drugs and the
eye is a brilliant addition to the book
and is very well written.
Overall, this is a very comprehen-
sive book and deserves to be an integ-
ral part of every emergency clinic and
primary care setting.
Jóhannes Kári Kristinsson
The book starts with an excellent
chapter on optical coherence tomogra-
phy and macular oedema. Optical
coherence tomography is one of the
most important technologies to
emerge in ophthalmology recently and
Abouzeid and Wolfensberger provide
an outstanding review of this technol-
ogy and its use in various eye diseases.
In the second chapter, Bindewald
et al. update the reader on the funda-
mentals and use of fundus autofluo-
rescence imaging.
The first two chapters on diagnostic
technologies are followed by five
563