Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)I purchased this book due to my interest in neuromuscular medicine. I wanted a text that would provide a framework of diseases within the bailiwick of this sub-speciality to strengthen what I knew and develop a familiarity for entities I was not as well versed with. I thought that this would be a good book because of the fact the book is published in 2008, it was less than two hundred dollars, and that it was in a length that could be read in a reasonable time frame, as opposed to works edited by Katirji, Dyck, or Engel.
So I read it from cover to cover.
I must admit that I am more knowledgeable about the field than prior to the text and that I can look at a patient with a greater degree of sophistication than before. I also appreciated the references as I prefer to read the primary articles to reinforce my knowledge.
And now the bad.
This book would have benefited from one or two more attempts at editing prior to being published. I find that the text contradicts itself, that the factual data can be the opposite of generally accepted fact, and that the quality of the writing can be variable from chapter to chapter. Also, I was a little perplexed by the five to six different styles of referencing material (sometime erroneously citing the incorrect article), and once I saw two different varieties in the same sentence [page 635 column 1, paragraph 2, line 2].
I feel that I should provide several specific examples where I directly quote the text or infer the meaning of a table:
Table 2-3 on page 41 [infer]:
no fibrillation potentials/positive sharp waves in motor neurone disease
Page 387, first full paragraph:
Recall the disparity between the number of cervical vertebrae (seven) and nerve roots (eight) (Fig. 21-2). As a result, each numbered cervical nerve root is related to the immediate inferior bony level. For example, the C5 spinal root exits the spinal column between the fourth and fifth cervical vertebra, and it is vulnerable to compression from a herniated disk (herniated nucleus pulposus or HNP) between C5 and C6. The C6 spinal root exits the spinal column between the fifth and sixth cervical vertebrae and may be injured from an HNP between C5 and C6. In the same manner, an HNP between C6 and C7 levels may damage the C7 root, while an HNP at the C7 and C8 vertebral may impinge the C8 nerve root. The T1 spinal nerve exists between the eighth cervical and first thoracic vertebrae and may be damaged by an HNP at this level.
[If you do not find several errors with this paragraph, please break out your medical student anatomy text, even the pocket book you may still have will have this right. If you are just a logician and know nothing of the conventions of human anatomy, there are still two errors in this paragraph. I wonder who wrote it.]
Page 753, first full paragraph, line 2:
Malignant hyperthermia is a medical emergency, requiring several therapeutic steps, and fibers with non-rimmed vacuoles.
[This is an example of the more frequent type of error.]
Page 601, first full paragraph, first line:
Section about type III glycogenosis where the reader is referred to figure 26-1 to find the debrancher enzyme step on the glycolytic pathway, where it is not represented.
I will stop here....but the point is that I can go on for some time.
The person who can get most from this will be one who can read the material critically, so it should not be considered an introductory text to the field. Unless you are taking the neuromuscular medicine boards and want something that can be read in time (which is not me), I would wait until the next edition.
I have not accomplished anything like this book, and I realize it is an achievement, so I thank Drs. Amato and Russell.
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Everything you need to know about neuromuscular disease--in one concise, full-color volume
"...this book will become an indispensable resource for clinicians involved in the diagnosis and management of patients with neuromuscular diseases, as well as for scientists working on the nature and pathogenesis of these disorders. It is a much-needed and welcome addition to the neurological literature and will rapidly gain acceptance as a standard work of reference."--Michael J. Aminoff, MD, DSc, FRCP, (from the foreword)
Neuromuscular Disorders is comprehensive in scope, yet concise enough to serve as a valuable point-of-care guide for your day-to-day clinical practice. Grounded by numerous reference sources and enhanced by the experience of two seasoned clinicians, this text provides a pragmatic approach to the evaluation and management of neuromuscular disease. Here, in a single source, you'll get an insightful look at both nerve and muscle conditions, ranging from motor neuron diseases to neuropathies, neuromuscular junction disorders, and myopathies.
The book opens with the clinical and laboratory approach to patients with neuromuscular disease, covering electrodiagnostic testing, nerve conduction studies, and muscle and nerve histopathology. With an emphasis on effective diagnosis and treatment, the substance of the text examines the full spectrum of specific neuromuscular diseases, giving you the "big picture” of the discipline in a way that no other text can match.
FEATURES:
Convenient coverage of both nerve, muscle and neuromuscular transmission disorders--both primary and secondary neuromuscular diseases
Specific disease sections encompass the range of conditions likely to be encountered in clinical practice, including amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, myasthenia gravis, radiculopathies and plexopathies, mononeuropathies, various polyneuropathies, toxic myopathies, and dozens more
The very latest diagnosis and treatment recommendations and protocols based on the most recent clinical literature and research
Well-illustrated with EMGs, histopathology, and clinical photos
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