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There are not many security blankets that grown men drag around with them for 45 years. But Atlas of Surgical Operations—of which the 1983 version is the fifth edition—is one. It has been an important crutch for a generation of surgical residents and students.
Any fifth edition must be judged on the basis of its predecessors. Added in the 1983 edition are eight new procedures and 23 new drawings, which cover subjects such as fundoplication, Roux-en-Y gastrojejunostomy and vagotomy, and total pancreatectomy, plus certain vascular procedures that the authors judge should be performed by general surgeons. A subtitle could have been added: For General Surgeons.
Reflecting the burgeoning of surgery, this book has grown to a total of 206 chapters and 437 pages. Editorial judgment in selection of subjects obviously had to be exercised. In defending the crumbling frontiers of general surgery, they still bravely include nine gynecologic operations