A NEUROBIOLOGIST PRESENTS THE NEW EDITION
OF GRAY’S ANATOMY
GRAY’S ANATOMY: THE ANATOMICAL BASIS OF CLINICAL PRACTICE - 39th
edition. Edited by Susan Standring and others. Elsevier Churchill Livingstone,
2005. [$ 169, and an extra $30 for CD-ROM and online access].
Susan
Standring, professor of experimental neurobiology at King’s College (London)
and the first female editor in chief, presents the latest edition of Gray’s
Anatomy.
This
beautifully produced and medically invaluable book, continues its tradition of
excellence with this 39th edition which changes the subtitle from “The
Anatomical Basis of Medicine and Surgery” to “The Anatomical Basis of Clinical
Practice”. It is a quite relevant difference. In fact, since past editions
added material covering advances in such fields as molecular biology, immunohistology,
basic embryology, the book had mainly become a source for basic scientists and
anatomists. But with the present volume the authors added “anatomy in clinical
situations” such as microsurgery, endoscopy, arthroscopy, minimally invasive
surgery, reflecting the way in which clinicians need to see anatomy.
Being
aware that no single reviewer is competent to judge such an encyclopaedic work we
consulted a number of experts in the field and read reviews written by anatomists,
physicians and surgeons. Among them, Sherwin Nuland, clinical professor of
surgery at Yale University, provides an effective synthesis of relevant
considerations in “An Institution between Covers”, just published in the March
issue of Scientific American.
As
Nuland notes, Henry Gray’s original offering of 1858 has taken on the task of providing
an overview of the science on which comprehensive understanding of gross
anatomy is based in today’s biomedical and clinical worlds.
Over
the time a significant change came about with the 35th edition in
1973, when the visual character of the book began a veritable transformation.
Since that time, each edition has incrementally added topics from modern
imaging such as computer assisted and electron microscopy, CT, MRI, fMRI, PET and
so on.
With
the 37th edition, a formal editorial board was created to provide a
supervisory framework for the additions being made by the specialist authors
whose contributions were increasing the value of Gray’s Anatomy as a source for
basic science and clinical applications. When the next edition appeared in 1995
the main changes to be found in it -Nuland observes- were organizational,
consisting primarily of rearranging the material to make it more accessible and
useful.
But
with the present edition, Susan Standring and her authoritative team have
operated the major change in presenting their material by regions rather than
the old method of systems.
As
every human enterprise Gray’s Anatomy has its imperfections, but we have been
able to find only one mistake: “Surface Anatomy of the Lower Limb”, on page
1339 according the table of contents, is wrongly located on page 1999.