Cleft lip and palate: Diagnosis and management

Edited by:
  • S. Berkowitz
(Ed) Germany: Springer price £268.50, pp 800 ISBN 3540234098 | ISBN: 3-540-23409-8

This extremely comprehensive book has been edited by a world leader in the field of orofacial clefting. Through the text it is clear that Dr Berkowitz has achieved his goal of bringing together the contemporary concepts of diagnosis and management for patients with clefts. Although few will read this book cover-to-cover, most readers will dip into one or two individual areas at a time. Dr Berkowitz has facilitated this by breaking the text into readable sections dealing with each issue. Students and experienced clinicians will find it easy to find the information they want quickly.

Although this is the second edition of a book first published in 1996, there have been numerous updates by the contributors of the original text commensurate with the fast changing pace of clinical research in the field of cleft lip and palate.

The book contains everything that most clinicians and researchers would want within a book about orofacial clefts: embryology, cleft typology, facial growth, surgery, presurgical orthopaedics/comprehensive orthodontic treatment, bone grafting, speech and psychology. In the main, the text is supported by appropriate evidence. The results of some important studies are however underrepresented. I mention this not to criticise but to point out that each chapter contains opinions that some may disagree with. Space is allocated to a section on 'The future', detailing current clinical and molecular research and the potential promise of global collaborative research. This is a most worthwhile section, however within a few years it will become outdated and a third edition will inevitably be required because of scientific advances.

There is only one real criticism I would make. There is significant shine-through from the text and figures on the reverse side of some pages, reducing the quality of many of the excellent figures. This has no doubt arisen from the use of thinner paper in order to keep all 799 pages within one volume. Despite this, the text is illustrated with a vast array of figures, which for those embarking on a career working with patients with cleft lip and palate are extremely useful.

Would I buy this book? Not at £268.50, but I will certainly be borrowing it from my hospital library. It is an excellent resource for those involved in the multidisciplinary care of patients with clefts of the lip and palate as well as undergraduate and postgraduate students who merely wish to find out a little more information.