Download Obstetrics by Ten Teachers
First published in 1917 as 'Midwifery', Obstetrics by Ten Teachers is well established as a concise, yet comprehensive, guide within its field. The twentieth edition has been thoroughly updated by a new team of 'teachers', integrating clinical material with the latest scientific developments that underpin patient care. Each chapter is highly structured, with learning objectives, definitions, aetiology, clinical features, investigations, treatments, case histories and key point summaries and additional reading where appropriate. New themes for this edition include 'professionalism' and 'global health' and information specific to both areas is threaded throughout the text. Along with its companion Gynaecology by Ten Teachers the book will continue to provide an accessible 'one stop shop' in obstetrics and gynaecology for a new generation of doctors
The first edition of Obstetrics
by Ten Teachers was published
in 1917 and was titled Midwifery. The sixteenth edition appeared in 1995, which I reviewed in Acta Obstetricia et Gynecologica Scandinavica (1996;75:
511) with high praise. The present and seventeenth edition of
Obstetrics by Ten Teachers
came 5 years later, hardly
enough time for the previous
edition to be outdated. Yet this
is a completely new textbook.
Only the size and volume have
been retained. The editors are
new, as are the contributors (with one exception: J. G. Grudzinskas). Colors have been introduced, pleasing to the eye and
of some possible didactic benefit. The editors, with little modesty, state that it is the most respected English language textbook on obstetrics, and they have done their best to live up to
expectations. Inasmuch as it is possible to update the subject in
5 years, they have succeeded.
The book starts with a page of commonly used abbreviations. I sometimes wonder why every new (and old) term in
medicine has to be supplied with an abbreviation. Is it to save
time in speaking and writing, or to maintain a secret professional jargon? Many are part of everyday language but
others deserve oblivion. In any case, the page is useful. The
authors have also included topical case histories, not least in
the final section on medicolegal issues.
I was particularly pleased to note that the authors have retained the old rule for dating pregnancy, using the last menstrual period except when dates are unreliable. In Norway, one
sticks to ultrasound dating with almost religious fervor. Of
course the ultrasound scan is well described and beautifully illustrated in the chapter on antenatal imaging and assessment
of fetal well being. The mid-pregnancy scan, taken at 18–22
weeks, is said to be the most informative, but the most accurate
dating is carried out between 11 and 14 weeks. Another novel
point of interest is that antenatal care with only four key visits
for low-risk mothers is advocated, with clearly defined objectives at each visit. This is indeed the philosophy of the New
World Health Organization Antenatal Care Model, which was
introduced in 2001 following a large randomized trial. I am also
prompted to compliment the editors for including statistics on
the global situation concerning maternal mortality, but I get an
odd feeling when looking at the figures for 1988 in the USSR
(Table 3.1), knowing that 1995 estimates for the world, including the Russian Federation, are readily available.
The age-old description of the various shapes of the female
pelvis has been retained, although with X-ray pictures of the
pelvis rapidly disappearing it will not be of much practical
value. Perhaps there will be a resurgence of interest with focus
on the ethnic divergence of parturients in many societies?
There is a paragraph on how to lower instrumental vaginal
delivery rates, but no mention on the very high rate of cesarean
section in, at least parts of, the UK, which ought to have been
mentioned. The paragraph on cesarean section or vaginal
breech was written before the results of the large international
multicenter trial were known, and needs to be revised in the
next edition. Both Kielland’s forceps and Løvset’s maneuver are
described and illustrated, but the names are misspelt as Kjelland and Loveset.
The ‘10 teachers’ have swollen to twenty; there were 15 in the
previous edition. The reader is not told who wrote what. It does
not matter, as it is all well written. Some of the chapters end
with a few references for further reading, with authors’ names
occasionally found in the list of contributors; this may give a
clue to authorship.
I warmly recommend Obstetrics by Ten Teachers as an excellent textbook for medical students.
