Françoise Gray, Umberto De Girolami and Jacques Poirier (eds):

Escourolle and Poirier Manual of Basic Neuropathology (4th ed), 400 pp, Stoneham, MA, Butterworth-Heinemann 2003 ($69.95).

In 1971, Raymond Escourolle and his protégé Jacques Poirier, neuropathologists at the eminent Hôpital de la Salpêtrière in Paris, wrote a short book for their students covering the basics of neuropathology. After 2 years, an English version appeared, translated by Lucien Rubinstein, then at Stanford University. The unexpected popularity of the English text led to two subsequent editions published in 1977 and 1989, the latter including a third author, Françoise Gray of the Hôpital Lariboisière in Paris. More than a decade later, Umberto De Girolami of Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, regretting the disappearance of ‘Escourolle and Poirier’, initiated a move to resurrect the book with a fourth edition, published directly in English. The result is Escourolle and Poirier Manual of Basic Neuropathology, a primer on the essentials of neuropathology designed for general pathologists, neurologists, and neurosurgeons. More than 30 contributors have written chapters on the principal topics of neuropathology, including trauma, tumors, infections, neurodegeneration, metabolic disorders, peripheral nerve and muscle disease, and vascular disease. This new edition of ‘Escourolle and Poirier’ also covers two topics not found in the first three editions: pituitary disease and the neuropathology of epilepsy. This new manual invites comparison to Practical Review of Neuropathology, by Gregory Fuller of MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, with J Clay Goodman, published in 2001. For general pathologists, ‘Escourolle and Poirier’ is superior in that it provides more background context, has high-quality color photographs and includes an appendix on neuropathological techniques. For nonpathologists, the review by Fuller and colleagues has the advantage of bullet format tables, a glossary of specialized terms, and lists designed for memorization before taking the Boards. (Given the reasonable price of each of these books, one might consider purchasing both manuals.) I applaud the resurrection of ‘Escourolle and Poirier’, and highly recommend it to pathology residents and general pathologists in search of a basic understanding of neuropathologic disease.