Ophthalmology: staying out of trouble

This is a good book. The concept, presentation, content, quality of the printing, even the binding is good. The content is unlikely to go out of date quickly and the plastic cover, which overlaps the main pages of the book, should make it durable in a pocket or on a desk, whether for a student, a general practitioner or an optometrist.

Practical ophthalmology addresses the target market in a didactic way. It sets out to keep non-ophthalmologists out of trouble. There is useful advice on what NOT to do and what is urgent.

It does this by using a well laid-out colour-coded series of chapters that are symptom-based, along with flow charts to speed decision making. Symptoms, signs and management are all clearly laid out. There are good quality colour illustrations and examples.

The index makes up almost 10% of the book’s 255 pages, making it easy to find any topic quickly.

Practical ophthalmology is good value and it is imperative that everybody read Chapter 1, entitled “Staying out of trouble with eyes”. Recommended.

Thomas D WalkerOphthalmologist, Deakin, ACT