International Textbook of Aesthetic Surgery

The International Textbook of Aesthetic Surgery is the result of an ambitious project by editors Drs. Nicolo Scuderi of Italy and Bryant Toth of the United States who set out to create a comprehensive text that would represent “aesthetic surgery today.” The text’s introduction tells us it is an outgrowth of a biannual meeting attended by a group of surgeons from Italy and the United States. While the editors have relied primarily on authors from those two countries, there are 10 different countries represented with 152 authors in total. The text comes as a handsome 2 volume set containing 1278 pages encompassing 84 chapters divided into 10 different sections. In the editors’ own words, they did not set out to create an “encyclopedia of surgical techniques,” but rather to “present a panorama” of “what we consider contemporary aesthetic surgery to be.” To accomplish this objective, they have selected authors who they felt were “on the cutting edge.” The backbone of any multiauthored textbook is the authors themselves. In this, the editors have done an excellent job of creating a vibrant mix of less prominent but clearly capable authors with many high-profile well-published plastic surgeons. Also, the combination of Italian and American authors makes for an interesting contrast in the way things are done. The book is well organized by anatomic region, moving from the introduction through breast, trunk and extremities, scalp, nose, eyelids, ear, face (surgical), face (nonsurgical), and future directions. The Introduction alone contains 9 chapters beginning with The Concept of Beauty in Different Cultures (Ortiz Monasterio) and the Frontier Between Aesthetic and Reconstructive Surgery (Marchac). These are followed by some very practical chapters including Psychological Issues in Aesthetic Surgery, How to Manage and Aesthetic Practice, Photography, and Anesthesia. This book reads like a series of stand alone articles from authors who present their personal thoughts and methods on a given subject. This gives the reader an experience much like taking a series of in-depth courses from selected experts. Some authors have taken a broad view of their subject matter, covering history, anatomy, and the entire range of treatment options as well as their own preferred method. Other authors have limited their approach a personal viewpoint, describing their thought process and their own technique in detail. In general, the style of this text is to concentrate on telling the reader “how I do it” and why, rather than presenting all the background and all known approaches. The result is readable prose that flows more smoothly than a more formal style textbook. However, this does lead to some redundancy when similar subject matter is dealt with in different chapters by different authors. Some chapters with more than one author take an unusual and entertaining approach. Cosmetic Breast Augmentation with Fat Grafting (Del Vecchio and Khouri) covers the subject well and where the authors differ, they each take a paragraph to explain their position in counter point to the other. In addition to the expected subject areas, I was interested to see numerous topics that are uncommonly seen in plastic surgery texts. These include a very engaging chapter on the American Legal System (Reisman), several separate chapters on History (Aesthetic Breast, Trunk, Rhinoplasty, Blepharoplasty, Facial Rejuvenation), 5 chapters on aesthetic scalp surgery, and 10 chapters on nonsurgical treatment of the face. There are even 2 chapters on Preventative Medicine and Anti-Aging, both of which give us a complete review of those subjects. The primary problem with this text is its timeliness. It was first published in Italian in 2012 and is now republished in English. Given the time lag from an author writing a chapter until the publication of a complex book, much of the content is likely 6 to 7 years old. For example, in the excellent chapter on Reoperative Aesthetic Breast Surgery (Grotting), the author states that “form stable silicone breast implants…have yet to be approved by the FDA.” In the Breast Augmentation section, under complications, there is no mention of anaplastic large cell lymphoma. The chapter on Neck Surgery (Pelle Ceravolo) does not contain the new material published by this author which repudiates some of his prior thinking presented in this chapter. The chapter on Gluteoplasty concentrates on gluteal implants, with fat grafting briefly described and with no complications listed. Another issue involves some chapters where the translation from Italian to English is obvious. While this does not present a problem with facts, sentence structure and the choice of vocabulary can occasionally make reading cumbersome. Some examples are amusing, such as the comment in the Basic Rhinoplasty chapter that when lowering the nasal dorsum, “resections must be parsimonious.” However, in some cases, subtle word differences could lead to misunderstanding or inaccuracy. In the chapter on Breast Augmentation there is repeated use of the term “silicon implants.” Lastly, the reproduction of images, while generally of high quality, is somewhat inconsistent with the clarity in certain chapters being less than ideal. That said, the artwork is generally excellent although the artistic style varies from one chapter to another. My wish is that there could be more of it. For example, in the chapter on Forehead and Brow Rejuvenation, there are no procedural diagrams; all surgical techniques are described in words. Overall, this 2-volume text is an engaging overview of aesthetic surgery from the personal point of view of selected surgeons on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. It represents a massive undertaking that covers all standard topics as well as the uncommon. This text will be of interest to practising surgeons who would like to review how other surgeons are doing things. With an emphasis on surgeons’ thought processes and on surgical details, the established surgeon reading this book is given the tools to tackle procedures that may be new to him. The book is a little out of date, but this is only relevant in certain specific subject areas. To purchase: http://www.springer.com/us/book/9783662465981 The author declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and publication of this article. The author received no financial support for the research, authorship, and publication of this article.

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