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Surgical Anatomy of the Heart, 3^rd Edition

Benson R. Wilcox, Andrew C. Cook, Robert H. Anderson. Cambridge University Press, 2005. 319 pages. ISBN 0 521 86141 1

Centre Universitaire de Santé de l’Estrie, Sherbrooke, Canada

As indicated by the title, this book was originally intended for cardiac surgeons. Through editing, the aim of the author was to expand the readership to other specialties such as anesthesiology.

The principle of this book is to describe in detail the anatomy of the heart as seen by a cardiac surgeon. In ten chapters, the reader will learn about surgical approaches to the heart, the surgical anatomy of the valves, the surgical anatomy of the conduction system and the coronary circulation. About two-thirds of the book is devoted to congenital cardiac abnormalities.

The visual material of this text is superb: pictures of actual cases, pathological dissections and diagrams are clear and well-presented. The photographs are well highlighted and small pictorials in the corner (with indications such as anterior, apex, etc.) allow the reader to visually orientate the anatomical content of the figure in three dimensions. The visual content well complements the text which is clear, precise and informative.

As the focus of this text is on the anatomy as seen by the surgeon, the scope and details are probably beyond what most anesthesiologists need to know. On the other hand, the chapters on surgical anatomy of the valves and on congenital abnormalities are quite relevant to our practice: understanding what the surgeon sees allows us to better communicate, especially when discussing the interpretation of our transesophageal echocardiographic examinations.

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