The Cleft Palate Story
Author: Samuel Berkowitz
When a child is born with a cleft lip and/or palate, parents are often left with unanswered questions and a lack of information as to what to do and when to do it. The Cleft Palate Story is a unique and comprehensive book that provides parents with the answers to those questions and helps them to understand and successfully manage the problems associated with their child's cleft.
Inside The Cleft Palate Story, Dr. Samuel Berkowitz describes the different types of clefts, the causes of clefting, and the rehabilitation options. A clear and positive format is used to help parents reduce their anxiety over the unknown but treatable consequences of cleft lip/palate treatment and prepare them for the examinations, medical and dental procedures, and hospital admissions.
The Cleft Palate Story explains the methods used in clinical management, including surgery, orthodontics, and speech and hearing rehabilitative techniques. This generously illustrated book also includes an impressive appendix of valuable resources including information on insurance, finding support groups, and cleft-related publications and videos available on the market.
The Cleft Palate Story prepares parents for the challenges they will face, helps them understand the treatment plan developed by the cleft palate team, and details how this condition can be managed to have a successful outcome.
Michael E. Dunham
This is an informative new book on the care of children with facial clefting. It is written from the perspective of the craniofacial anomalies team and includes contributions from a variety of specialists caring for children with facial clefts. The book is a practical guide for parents of children with facial clefts. It includes detailed, but easily understood, material covering the surgical, dental, speech, and hearing aspects of craniofacial clefting. The book largely meets its overall objective as a handbook and reference for parents and primary care practitioners on this important subject. The book is targeted especially for parents of children with craniofacial clefts. It is, however, also an excellent source of information for primary care practitioners. The contributors are individuals distinguished in this field and include a mother of a child with a craniofacial cleft features. The book includes a number of excellent illustrations and photographs. The most unique feature of the book is its in-depth inclusion of resources for parents of children effected by craniofacial clefting. The list of resources include information on (1) feeding and day-to-day care of infants with facial clefts; (2) financing health care for handicapped children; (3) how to deal with insurance companies; (4) how to find a qualified craniofacial cleft team; (5) what to expect during and after surgery for craniofacial clefting. The chapters on surgical planning and dental orthodontics/orthopedics are particularly noteworthy. These complex and somewhat controversial topics are often confusing for parents and referring primary care physicians. This is a clearly written overview of facial clefting intended forparents. It is also an excellent reference for primary care physicians treating children with facial clefts. Each member of the craniofacial anomalies team explains their contribution to the child's care. The parent is considered an integral part of the team. The book's principle strengths are its in-depth but clearly written material for parents and its inclusion of resources for parents and caretakers of children with facial clefts.
Doody Review Services
Reviewer: Michael E. Dunham, MD (Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine)
Description: This is an informative new book on the care of children with facial clefting. It is written from the perspective of the craniofacial anomalies team and includes contributions from a variety of specialists caring for children with facial clefts.
Purpose: The book is a practical guide for parents of children with facial clefts. It includes detailed, but easily understood, material covering the surgical, dental, speech, and hearing aspects of craniofacial clefting. The book largely meets its overall objective as a handbook and reference for parents and primary care practitioners on this important subject.
Audience: The book is targeted especially for parents of children with craniofacial clefts. It is, however, also an excellent source of information for primary care practitioners. The contributors are individuals distinguished in this field and include a mother of a child with a craniofacial cleft features.
Features: The book includes a number of excellent illustrations and photographs. The most unique feature of the book is its in-depth inclusion of resources for parents of children effected by craniofacial clefting. The list of resources include information on (1) feeding and day-to-day care of infants with facial clefts; (2) financing health care for handicapped children; (3) how to deal with insurance companies; (4) how to find a qualified craniofacial cleft team; (5) what to expect during and after surgery for craniofacial clefting. The chapters on surgical planning and dental orthodontics/orthopedics are particularly noteworthy. These complex and somewhat controversial topics are often confusing for parents and referring primary care physicians.
Assessment: This is a clearly written overview of facial clefting intended for parents. It is also an excellent reference for primary care physicians treating children with facial clefts. Each member of the craniofacial anomalies team explains their contribution to the child's care. The parent is considered an integral part of the team. The book's principle strengths are its in-depth but clearly written material for parents and its inclusion of resources for parents and caretakers of children with facial clefts.
Rating
4 Stars! from Doody
Go to: Il salto radicale: Una lezione personale nella direzione estrema
Revenge of the Microbes: How Bacterial Resistance Is Undermining the Antibiotic Miracle
Author: Abigail A Salyers
"Written by experts with extensive experience in the field, Revenge of the Microbes provides the scientific information readers will need to form opinions and make informed decisions regarding the use of antibiotics. The authors have carefully sifted through a vast amount of information to ensure comprehensive coverage of topics including the larger issues of economics, politics, health, safety, and the environment. Specific antibiotics and controversies are examined in a real-life context; accounts of positions on all sides of the public policy debate are presented; and less common issues, such as what happens to antibiotics once they are released into the environment, are addressed. The evolution of antibiotic-resistant bacteria is put into perspective, and bacterial mutation and horizontal gene transfer are explained in simple terms. An in-depth documentation of antibiotic structures is provided in the appendix." Reader-friendly and comprehensible, Revenge of the Microbes will engage a diverse audience, including biologists, doctors, teachers, students, lawyers, environmentalists, and everyday citizens. This new volume encourages readers to consider the extensive role of antibiotics in modern medicine and the potentially catastrophic impact the loss of effective antibiotics would have today and on future generations.
Doody Review Services
Reviewer: Rachel L. Robson, B.S., PhD (ABD)(Doane College)
Description: This book explains to a nonscientist audience antimicrobial resistance and why it is a serious threat to human health. Although it is a fairly easy read, even for those with little or no microbiology experience, it does not oversimplify or slip into inaccurate overgeneralizations, as many popular science books do.
Purpose: Drs. Salyers and Whitt aim to explain the basics of antibacterial resistance to nonscientists, so that they will understand why one should not take penicillin for the flu, for instance, or insist upon antibacterial soaps. Since the future of antibiotics depends on millions of individuals making informed decisions about antibiotic use, this book could not be more needed. The conversational writing style helps the authors meet this objective, by being emphatic without being preachy.
Audience: The book is clearly aimed at the nonscientist. But it is an excellent supplemental text for an undergraduate microbiology course, or even an introductory college biology course. The authors do an excellent job discussing the social and economic reasons why antibiotics are used in the way they are today, even though we know that such usage will likely lead to antibiotics' early obsolescence. This helps college biology students to understand how microbiology affects their everyday lives, and how political or economic decisions can affect human health. Further, the book does a great job of explaining, in easy-to-understand language, bacterial genetics, metabolism and evolution, making it a handy companion to (often, too jargon-y) microbiology textbooks. I haveadded this as a required text for the introductory college microbiology courses I teach for this reason.
Features: The best thing about this book is its breezy, conversational writing style that still does not sacrifice scientific accuracy. A close second is its thoughtful discussion of social and economic factors contributing to the overuse of antibiotics. Thought-provoking discussion questions (my favorite: Should county X be charged with bioterrorism for using drugs in such a way that led to the emergence of a completely drug-resistant TB strain?) keep readers considering what they've read long after they put the book down. As a microbiologist with an interest in antibiotic resistance, I still found myself having many gee-whiz moments. (tetQ gene transfer is actually induced by tetracycline itself [p. 105]? Cool.) More attention might have been paid to fitness landscapes, and the fact that bacteria won't inveitably evolve towards antibiotic susceptibility again if we stop using antibiotics. Too many people have this comforting view -- that resistance to drugs necessarily makes bacteria less fit -- and it would have been nice for the authors to address this more thoroughly than they did here.
Assessment: I am recommending Revenge of the Microbes to all my nonmicrobiologist friends, and requiring it of all my microbiology students. I only wish this book were better known, and more widely publicized, so that more people would read it. This is an important book that addresses an important topic, without ever seeming pedantic or stuffy. It is also reasonably priced for a trade paperback, and downright cheap for a college textbook. Overall, this is a fantastic value for the money.
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