Book Review: Ocular Surface Disease – Cornea, Conjunctiva, and Tear Film
Editors: Edward J. Holland, Mark J. Mannis, and W. Barry Lee
Publisher: Saunders Elsevier, 452 pages

Book Review by: Nano Khilnani

With this book, you get access to a whole lot of resources on www.ExpertConsult.com.
Go to the book’s inside front cover, then scratch off the label to get your Activation Code.

If you are already a registered user at that site, enter the Activation Code in the Add a Title box. Then click Activate Now. Then click the title under My Titles.

If you are a first-time user, click on Register Now at ExpertConsult.com, then fill in your user information and click Continue. To activate your book’s online resources, enter the Activation Code into the Enter Activation Code box, click on Activate Now, and then finally click on the title under My Titles.

The material you will find on the website highlighted above can be accessed through any Internet-ready device such as a desktop computer, laptop, or even a Smart phone. The information relating to this textbook is not only mobile and searchable, but is in addition to what is found in the print version of this title.

Contributions from 88 specialists within the field of ophthalmology in the United States, Australia, Brazil, Canada, East Grinstead (UK), Germany, Iran, Israel, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Scotland, and Turkey, and excellent organizational and material presentation skills of the three editors named above, and the production team’s work at Saunders Elsevier, have made this an excellent book on surface diseases of the eye.

This book contains 54 chapters organized around 5 Parts, which are:

1. Fundamentals
2. Diseases of the Ocular Surface
3. Limbal Stem Cell Disease
4. Management of Severe Ocular Surface Disease
5. Ocular Surface Transplantation

Among the online resources found on www.ExpertConsult.com are nine videos.

Knowledge in the area of ocular surface disease is constantly growing, especially in our modern age with rapid technological advancement. This volume provides the latest known facts on this subject, but does not and cannot include advances that may have occurred during and after it went into print. Its editors write:

“In this volume, we have attempted to gather the current state of our understanding of eye surface physiology in health and disease. In collaboration with a group of world-renowned experts, we have sought to organize the therapeutic state-of-the-art in order to assist the practitioner in effective decision-making in the management of external eye disease.”

“But in a field changing this rapidly, there will be new discoveries even as this book goes to press. And therein, lies the excitement.”

Each chapter starts with an Introduction, followed by discussions of important topics made easier to understand with sketches and photos of eye parts affected with a particular condition, disorder, or disease.

For example the Introduction of Chapter 1 entitled Historical Concepts of Ocular Surface Disease describes the main functions of the ocular surface: “to maintain optical clarity of the cornea, serve as a refractive surface for accurate projection of light through the ocular media, and provide protection of the structures of the eye against microbes, trauma and toxins.”

On that page are shown two photos with ocular surface diseases. The first one shows a patient’s eye with severe peripheral ulcerative keratitis, an eye disease that emerged from rheumatoid arthritis. The second photo is of another patient’s eye afflicted with mild dry eye disease depicting lissamine green staining of the interpalpebral bulbar conjunctiva.

The chapter discusses the following topics:
• Ocular Surface Disease: Advances in Diagnosis and Treatment
• Origins of the Surgical Management of Severe Ocular Surface Disease
• Corneal Stem Cell Theory and Early Clinical Applications
• Ocular Surface Disease: Contemporary Advances in Surgical Management

A large number of References are provided at the end of this chapter for further study.

Additional resources available to purchasers of this book are found on: www.ClinicalKey.com
ClinicalKey is specifically designed to serve doctors by providing three core components:
1. Comprehensive Content – the most current, evidence-based answers available for every medical and surgical specialty.
2. Trusted Answers – Content supplied by Elsevier, the world’s leading provider of health and science information.
3. Unrivaled Speed to Answer – Faster, more relevant clinical answers, so you can spend less time searching and more time caring for patients.
Some information on the editors of this book:

Edward J. Holland MD is Director of Cornea at Cincinnati Eye Institute and Professor of Ophthalmology at the University of Cincinnati in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Mark J. Mannis MD, FACS is Professor and Chair of the Department of Ophthalmology and Vision Science at UC Davis Health System Eye Center at the University of California Davis in Sacramento, California.

W. Barry Lee MD, FACS is affiliated with Cornea, External Disease, & Refractive Surgery Consultants of Atlanta / Piedmont Hospital, and Medical Director at Georgia Eye Bank in Atlanta, Georgia.