The Healing Blade: A Tale of Neurosurgery - Hardcover

Sylvester, Edward J.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0671760548 ISBN 13: 9780671760540

Publisher: Simon & Schuster, 1993

Synopsis

Describes the work of neurosurgeon Robert Spetzler and his colleagues at Barrow Neurological Institute and the cases of eight patients, illustrative of the accomplishments and limitations of modern neurosurgery. By the author of Target: Cancer. 30,000 first printing. Tour.

About this title

Reviews

In a splendid, often riveting account of high-tech procedures and personalities at the forefront of modern brain surgery, Sylvester ( Target: Cancer ) takes readers into the famed Barrow Neurological Institute at Phoenix, Ariz. There a staff of elite surgeons, led by director Robert Spetzler and equipped with the latest image-scanning machines and measuring techniques, pushes the frontiers of neurosurgery. The author's precise prose and apt imagery bare the interaction between staff members and patients linked by this exact and problematic surgery, illuminating the NASA-like preparation and teamwork involved in such procedures as hypothermic arrest, when the patient's blood is first chilled and then drained from his body for up to an hour. Focussing on Spetzler and the demands of his work, Sylvester offers an immediate, thorough and lucid chronicle.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Sylvester, journalist and author of Target: Cancer ( LJ 1/86), adds to the burgeoning popular literature on the brain. He shifts comfortably among several foci (the human brain, the patient, technology, the surgeon), creating a gripping portrait of modern surgery. (David Noonan in his Neuro , LJ 3/1/89) was less effective at managing these multiple topics.) At the center of this portrait stands Robert Spetzler, the talented world-famous head of neurosurgery at Phoenix's Barrow Neurological Institute. Spetzler is especially renowned for his finesse in handling "standstills" in which the patient's temperature is drastically lowered, the heart brought to a standstill, and surgery completed. Despite a rough, occasionally careless style, Sylvester knows how to maintain an effective rhythm and tell a good story. From a literary standpoint, Mark Shelton's Working in a Very Small Place ( LJ 6/1/89) and Steve Fishman's A Bomb in the Brain ( LJ 11/1/88) should be primary selections. But where interest remains high, The Healing Blade would make an appropriate third choice for public libraries.
- Laurie Bartolini, Lincoln Lib., Springfield, Ill.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Publication date: 1993
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0671760548
• ISBN 13: 9780671760540
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 240