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Foot and ankle in rheumatoid arthritis

Article  in  Acta Orthopaedica · July 2009

DOI: 10.1080/17453670610012575

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Urban Rydholm
Lund University
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 Acta Orthopaedica 2006; 77 (3): 545
Book review
Foot and ankle in rheumatoid arthritis
Bouysset M, Tourné Y, Tillman K (eds), 246 pages, Springer 2006
ISBN 2-287-59757-3
Correct surgical treatment of the arthritic foot is a
prerequisite to obtaining optimal walking capacity,
Acta Orthop Downloaded from informahealthcare.com by 78.36.8.226 on 05/20/14
especially after hip and/or knee replacement in the
rheumatoid patient. The title of this book therefore
arouses interest. However, one’s initial enthusiasm
vanishes rapidly after starting to read it. The text
is unstructured. Different authors present their
theories on the pathogenesis of foot deformities
with a great deal of repetition. There are numer-
ous spelling errors and the translation from French
For personal use only.
is sometimes totally incomprehensible. Here are
some examples: “the midhinfoot”, “the lower
ankle joint”, “stabilization of the metatarsal head
alignment-resection”.
The radiographs and CT images are of low—
sometimes ridiculously low—quality, most of
them being impossible to analyze.
In the chapter on corticosteroid injections, much
is written about the dangers. The chance that a
doctor will see a patient with septic arthritis due
to an intraarticular steroid injection is, however,
very low (the authors themselves state that the fre-
quency is about 1 in 30,000!). The sentence “ana-
phylactic shock is very rare but extremely serious”
is accompanied by 4 references! The reference
list in this chapter has 35 entries, the oldest one
being from 1951. It is followed by 9 additional
modern (but unnumbered) references not referred
Copyright© Taylor & Francis 2006. ISSN 1745–3674. Printed in Sweden – all rights reserved.
DOI 10.1080/17453670610012575
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545
to in the text. Probably this is an old chapter that
has been refreshened only by the addition of some
new references. The same system with additional
unnumbered and unreferred-to references is found
in other chapters also.
In the chapter on hindfoot surgery, all the figure
legends are missing. The chapter on forefoot sur-
gery is one of the shortest, which is a pity, as fore-
foot surgery is the most frequent procedure in RA
feet. Also in this chapter, all the figure legends are
missing and one figure is shown twice.
The end of this opus is abrupt. There is no index.
Probably the task of indexing this text would have
been unconceivable.
It is a great shame that an old and famous pub-
lisher like Springer lacks control of proofreading
and language editing, and has allowed a publication
with such severe deficiences to reach the market.
For the orthopedic surgeon looking for informa-
tion on the rheumatoid foot, there are several better
alternatives on the market. No one can be recom-
mended to spend any money on this book.
Urban Rydholm
Department of Orthopedics, Lund University
Hospital, SE-221 85 Lund, Sweden
urban.rydholm@ort.lu.se