The motto ‘publish or perish’ has never been more fervently adopted globally than in the present age. Indeed, the preface of this book observes that between 2016 and 2019, “approximately one paper [was published] every 4 minutes”. In this ocean of literature, it can be very difficult for trainees to find the one key paper that sets the standard that they see being practised in clinics, theatres and multidisciplinary team meetings every day.
There has already been a book published on landmark papers in otolaryngology in general and now, for the budding endocrine surgeon, this excellent book focuses on landmark papers in thyroid and parathyroid surgery.
The book states its target audience is “students, residents, fellows and surgeons studying for their professional exams or wanting an update on the current thyroid and parathyroid surgery literature”. It is certainly successful in its approach to this broad target audience. Endocrine surgery is an area of special interest with contributions from multiple specialties such as general surgery, otolaryngology, endocrinology and oncology. By ensuring each landmark paper has been reviewed by experts from around the world, this makes helpful reading for colleagues who subspecialise (or plan to subspecialise) in thyroid or parathyroid surgery. The book takes care to cover key themes with sections on thyroid nodule evaluation and treatment, thyroidectomy and thyroid cancer as well as multiple aspects of primary hyperparathyroidism, secondary hyperparathyroidism, tertiary hyperparathyroidism and parathyroid cancer. Within each of these sections, every single paper addresses a different facet of the topic. The careful, concise, logical structure of each analysis of the landmark papers makes the information clear and accessible to more junior colleagues, from those sitting fellowship examinations to medical students who may find this area interesting.
The paperback of this book has a retail price of £34.50 which I would consider very good value for money for a book which so helpfully summarises so much vital information. One would argue the ease it offers readers in understanding each paper is priceless!
