Book Review

Transplantation of the Liver, 2nd ed. R.W. Busuttil and G.B. Klintmaln. Elsevier-Saunders, 2005, 1504 pgs, $329.00.

Nine years since the publication of the first edition, this improved second edition updates and expands our knowledge of all aspects of liver transplantation. In the forward, Dr. Tom Starzl comments that in the second edition the authors have now made the work product even better. I can only agree.

This comprehensive text has 192 contributing authors. There are 13 major categories that contain the 89 chapters plus an index. General topics included are patient evaluation (both adult and pediatric), special considerations in patient evaluation, operative techniques, and unusual operative problems. Other chapters relate to immunology, pathology, immunosuppression, and survival results. Thus both medical and surgical aspects of liver transplantation are covered in significant detail. As an example, a major section, Operation, contains chapters on donor selection, principles of organ preservation, the recipient hepatectomy, and grafting and anesthesia. Seven chapters are included in the section on split and liver donor transplantation. The largest section is adult patient evaluation. Most hepatologists would be satisfied with the description and evaluation of those diseases that present as pre-transplant candidates. The final section considers xeno transplantation, hepatocyte transplantation, and artificial support systems.

This is a comprehensive, complete, and well-written text. Those interested or involved in liver transplantation may require additional texts but for most hepatologists and transplant surgeons no other reference is needed. Busuttil and Klintmaln have succeeded in producing the gold standard in textbooks on transplantation, albeit its cost is equally impressive.