The Oxford Specialist Handbooks in Surgery are a series of comprehensive, easy-to-read and up-to-date books. Plastic and reconstructive surgery is the latest edition, written as a portable resource for junior doctors and plastic surgery trainees. It also targets surgeons seeking revision material and medical students interested in plastic surgery.

As plastic surgery is a discipline encompassing many different areas, the book’s scope is wide, covering current Australian and United Kingdom curricula. It is edited by two Oxford-based plastic surgeons, Henk Giele and Oliver Cassell, who have also worked in Australia. Each chapter has contributions from senior plastic surgical registrars from the Radcliffe Infirmary in Oxford. Written in note form, this is current, high-yield information.

The handbook is practical — some very important novel chapters cover local anaesthetics, drugs in plastic surgery, embryology and tools of trade for plastic surgeons; topics that are not really covered in other texts and are only taught on the job.

References and illustrations are good, however, there is no direction on where to get more information. It therefore serves more as a pocket outline of the discipline of plastic surgery.

The price is a little steep compared with other texts of the same price but, in summary, it is a worthwhile, easy-to-read pocket guide to the entire discipline of plastic surgery, suitable for trainees and plastic surgeons.