This book certainly does what it says on the tin, and covers its subject very comprehensively. Normally a topic covered by a single chapter in a rhinology or skull base surgery textbook, this book offers 17 chapters on all aspects of CSF leaks from pathophysiology to novel techniques.
The authors are international experts in skull base surgery. The workhorse of pedicled flaps is well presented and illustrated by Carl Snyderman. The strength of this book is that is has the space to describe alternatives to this flap, which are usually overlooked in other texts; inferior and middle turbinate flaps based on the SPA are described, in addition to anteriorly pedicled flaps. I particularly liked the clear section on iatrogenic leaks associated with benign intracranial hypertension.
I was looking forward to looking at the videos provided as an online supplement, but unfortunately my Mac seemed unable to access them. There is inevitably a little repetition, and the quality of some of the images isn’t quite as good as those in other texts. However, this is a very useful book for the small number of surgeons undertaking elective CSF leak repairs. It is a book that I will return to – particularly to review some of the less commonly used flaps, although I am not sure I would have purchased it at £170. However, it will simply be too detailed to be of interest to those undertaking endoscopic sinus surgery and may inadvertently create a CSF leak – and who perhaps are in greatest need of clear guidance on the subsequent repair.
For skull base surgeons it may struggle to compete with the newly published editions of Draf’s Endoscopic Surgery of the Skull Base or Lund, Howard and Wei’s Tumours of the nose, sinuses and nasopharynx.
