An otology textbook dedicated to Howard House, William House and James Sheehy, and in memory of Harold Schucknecht, Mendell Robinson and Antonio De la Cruz, has an awful lot to live up to. I am very glad to say that it does so, and becomes a must have reference for all otologists.
The book opens with a useful and comprehensive chapter on instrumentation and set-up. This is not well covered elsewhere and provides a good grounding for setting up your practice.
There then follow chapters covering all the significant ontological procedures I can think of, often with several chapters dedicated to different techniques. For example, surgical approaches to tympanoplasty receive four chapters covering underlay, overlay, cartilage and transcanal techniques. The diagrams and line drawings are enhanced greatly by the small amount of colour. It is a shame many of the excellent clinical photographs are in black and white though.
The online access is really useful, and allows you to use this text as a reference at work without carrying the hard copy around.
Stapedectomy is exceptionally well covered, as are techniques for the surgical management of vertigo – from sac surgery to neurectomy.
New information on auditory implants is supplied, but with rapid advances in these devices, this information may not be current for long. Still, at present, the new tissue sparing approach to BAHA is described, as are techniques for the more common middle ear devices.
Skull-base surgery is also well covered, with some endonasal surgery described. Perhaps the most important omission is a chapter or two on endoscopic ear surgery.
Overall an excellent text both for reading up on topics and for reference. I would highly recommend it to all otologists.
