I highly recommend Dr. Joel Berman’s Understanding Surgery as a home medical reference bookshelf! I was pleased to be asked to review the 2008 second printing of this important endeavor and found that as the title says, it is a comprehensive guide for all families!

One thing I want to point out quickly. Although this book is directed to Surgery; that is, Dr. Berman provides the complete information you need when you are considering surgery. I found the book to be so well presented and written that it easily makes a wonderful general medical reference manual too. For example, if you have something bothering your chest, there is an extensive index that can be used to find different topics to review. Also, since there is no way to totally eliminate the use of difficult-to-understand medical terms, Dr. Berman has included an extensive glossary that is written in easily understandable words.

I admit that I am one of those people who is afraid to hear “the bad news” because I find it difficult to understand and therefore I am afraid of interactions with doctors and potential surgeons. Yet since the beginning of the book, Dr. Berman has taken the time to make readers feel more comfortable – he’s written silly, funny, and sometimes outrageous limericks to start every conversation. Then he moves very professionally to describe exactly what is involved and what the patient and family need to know as they explore the option of surgery.

The manual is divided into two parts. The second part includes a single chapter on anything and everything that may be operable (and even a little about what is not). Dr. Berman moves out of his own “general surgery” area, which includes things like the gallbladder, appendix, and transplants. It is then moved to areas that are normally sought after by specialists, touring various parts of the body from head to toe, (including plastic surgery) describing what problems can be and then what can and would be done by surgery. Each narrative includes detailed diagrams of the affected body area, clearly marked for use in understanding the actual process.

While Part II will be the most important part of this reference manual on an ongoing basis, I found Part I to be very informative. Often, professionals, especially specialists, are hired to handle a specific task or surgery. While we patients are grateful, we have no idea what has actually happened!

Dr. Berman, in Part I, has addressed this problem! It begins with a brief history of the surgery, the education of the surgeon, and then the specialties that have been developed. It talks about the details that we patients would not immediately think about if we were in pain, but that would be very important to us, if we weren’t seeing the individual for an immediate medical reason. The book includes what questions to explore with the surgeon (s).

Part I takes us to the surgeon’s office, the operating room and / or an ambulatory surgical center, as well as the emergency room. He assures us that we need to speak with our surgeon, consider second opinions, credentials and qualifications of the people involved. Then the topics of postoperative care, complications, infections and antibiotics are covered.

The potential use of lasers or laparoscopy (a method of operation that uses only a few small openings in the abdomen) is first explained and then reviewed as options. The importance of rehabilitation is covered thoroughly. More detailed information about problem areas, such as bleeding, the topic of diabetes and surgery, and problems with wound healing, as well as the importance of anesthesia and the professional in that area, is then discussed.

In fact, as I was going through the book, I couldn’t think of anything I wanted to know that at least wasn’t mentioned by Dr. Berman. And, if more information was suggested, he also provided references, including his first book, Comprehensive Breast Care.

Unfortunately, we often don’t think of valuable health care information until it’s too late to spend time reading and learning what we want to know. For this reason, I consider this to be a must-read / home library requirement. Take some time right now and get ready to respond to life-threatening problems!

Understanding Surgery: A Comprehensive Guide for All Families

By Dr. Joel Berman

Branden books

ISBN: 0-8283-2061-6

496 Pages