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Excerpt
In this era of downsizing, the third edition of Surgical Pathology of Non-Neoplastic Lung Disease is smaller than the second edition (477 pages vs. 603 pages) but significantly improved and grist for the adage mill, "third time is the charm." Perhaps owing to trends in the titles of a number of books in surgical pathology, the title of this book has been changed from Surgical Pathology of Non-Neoplastic Lung Disease to Katzenstein and Askin's Surgical Pathology of Non-Neoplastic Lung Disease, with Professor Katzenstein as the primary author.
The first edition appeared in 1982 and filled a void for the practicing surgical pathologist. With the death of A. Liebow and the book on interstitial lung disease that Carrington and Gaensler never finished (only the first chapter was ever written), the first edition provided a conceptual basis for non-neoplastic lung disease for a generation of pathologists.
This book provides a consistency of authorship from chapter to chapter not found in large multiauthored textbooks. The text is well-illustrated and supported by numerous user-friendly tables to aid in recognition and differential diagnosis of the various entities discussed. The preface highlights the various changes and additions, including maintenance of up-to-date text and references. There is one less chapter because the two chapters on pediatric lung disease were combined. There are 100 new illustrations and much more efficient utilization of space for figures in this edition. Some of the chapters are classics, particularly the chapter on acute lung injury patterns, which I think is a must-read for all surgical pathologists.
Chapter 17 on transbronchial lung biopsy, one of the most useful chapters in the book, is placed at the very end. This chapter is a gem because it provides the benefit of the author's vast experience in handling of these very common specimens. I would have placed it as the second chapter, but I understand its placement at the end of the book because it includes many of the entities covered in the prior text.
The illustrations are significantly improved over those in the second edition, which appeared to have been poorly reproduced. The illustrations are all black-and-white and of good to excellent quality. This reviewer welcomes the black-and-white figures despite the overwhelming trend in surgical pathology books to go to color.
Even the casual reader of book reviews, however, knows that this is where the quibbling starts. The features of the book, its chapter headings, sometimes even its weight have been recited, and now the individual reviewer (re-)asserts his own unique knowledge and expertise by quibbling about the organization of the text (I admit I did that once), quibbling about terminology, quibbling about specific data, etc. I will neither confirm nor deny that I have anything else to quibble about with this book.
Katzenstein and Askin's Surgical Pathology of Non-Neoplastic Lung Disease remains the standard for this area of surgical pathology. The consistency of philosophical approach and text style (primarily by one author), up-to-date information, and of course the price compare favorably with the considerable number of competitors in the world of pulmonary pathology textbooks.
