Book Review: Practical Tips in Aortic Surgery

Practical Tips in Aortic Surgery
John Elefteriades and Bulat Ziganshin
Springer International Publishing, Nov. 2021
ISBN 9783030788766, 305 pages, $59.99

This text represents a distillation of forty years of clinical practice in treating patients with diseases of the thoracic aorta. My overall impression is that this book provides an honest and pragmatic account of “how to do it.” Professor Elefteriades is widely acknowledged for establishing The Aortic Institute at Yale University as an international center of excellence against which many hospitals benchmark their quality outcomes. In addition, he has been responsible for bringing science to bear on clinical practice in the area of aortic surgery.

Professor Elefteriades and Dr. Ziganshin have presented their clinical practice in a unique style. No assumptions have been made, and no minor detail of surgical technique has been considered too small to discuss. These details define the difference between success and failure when the margins are so small in this specialty. Each chapter presents an important aspect of aortic surgery, is beautifully illustrated, and is followed by an interesting Q&A session between the professor and his colleagues.

I personally found the book very engaging and read it over the course of one day. I believe many trainees, junior surgeons, and senior surgeons will find this book fascinating and relevant to their day-to-day practice. I thank Professor Elefteriades for sharing his learning curve with us so that we may all start a little further up the curve, standing on his shoulders.