Books Received: Neuro-Ophthalmology

Books Received Neuro-Ophthalmology Judit Somlai, Tibor Kovács. Neuro-Ophthalmology, 1st edition. New York, NY: Springer; 2016. 717 pages. $129 for hardcover, $99.10 for ebook. ISBN: 978-3319289540 If you wonder if neuroophthalmology has reached Eastern Europe in general and Hungary in particular, you need to look no further than the new textbook entitled "Neuro-Ophthalmology" edited by Judit Somlai and Tibor Kovács. They and about 50 other contributors have combined to produce a textbook easily equal to any that has come before. As indicated in the preface by Péter Halász, this is actually the fourth edition, the first having been published in 1996, with revisions in 2007 and 2010. The previous 3 editions, also edited by Dr. Somlai alone (the first 2 editions) and Drs. Somlai and Kovács together (the third edition), were written in Hungarian and, thus, unknown to most of us whose primary language is English. This edition, which has twice as many pages as the last, is written in English. It contains 70 chapters divided into 9 sections, called "parts." Part I consists of 2 chapters, each written by one of the editors on the importance of neuro-ophthalmology to ophthalmologists (written by Dr. J.S.) and to neurologists (written by Dr. T.K.). Part II consists of 8 chapters on recent developments related to neuro-ophthalmological disorders, including genetics, stereotactic radiosurgery, neurointerventional treatments, and neuropathology. Part III deals with examination techniques and ancillary testing. This is the largest part of the textbook and includes 25 chapters covering everything from testing of color vision, : J Neuro-Ophthalmol 2016; 36: e19 contrast sensitivity, and visual fields to the role of optical coherence tomography (OCT), computed tomography (CT), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and electrophysiology in the assessment of patients with known or presumed neuro-ophthalmological disorders. Part IV consists of 16 chapters that deal with both congenital and acquired disorders of the retina and optic nerve, and Part V consists of 10 chapters on congenital and acquired ocular motor disorders. Part VI consists of 3 chapters on orbital disease. Part VII consists of a single chapter on tumors of the facial nerve; Part VIII also contains a single chapter that discusses the neuro-ophthalmological aspects of headache, and Part IX consists of 5 chapters related to visual rehabilitation, an area too often ignored in most textbooks but comprehensively covered in this one. As one might expect, with multiple contributors, some chapters read better than others, and one might quibble with some omissions (e.g., a chapter on the most important disorders of the pupillomotor pathway in clinical practice makes no mention of the potential for a dissection of the internal carotid artery to cause an acute Horner syndrome) or commissions (Argyll Robertson's name is spelled with a hyphen in several chapters and in the index), the book really is a tour de force. The illustrations, of which there is an ample number, are generally of excellent quality, including MRIs, CTs, fundus photographs, and visual field reproductions. In summary, there currently are a host of fine textbooks available for the reader who wishes to learn about the diagnosis and management of known or presumed neuroophthalmological disorders, but there is none any better than this one. Get it, read it, and learn from it! Neil R. Miller, MD, FACS Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland e19 Copyright © North American Neuro-Ophthalmology Society. Unauthorized reproduction of this article is prohibited.