Top Knife: The Art & Craft of Trauma Surgery

This book has become a seminal text for trauma surgeons in just a couple of years. Its contemporary appeal is similar to that enjoyed by Arnold K. Henry’s Extensile Exposure in the 1970s. Why is it so good? First, it is written by two first-rate trauma surgeons from Texas – there is an emotive connection; they know how to ‘walk the walk’. Second, the text is written using a direct personal ‘voice’ that is devoid of waffle.When discussing ‘the black hole’ – the time that patients spend in the operating room (OR) before the skin incision – they comment that ‘If you chose to spend most of the black hole interval at the scrub sink, you may end up with clean fingernails, but when you enter the OR you will find the patient improperly positioned, the scrub nurse prepping the wrong field, and the OR team effort in disarray’. Third, the text is liberally sprinkled with boxes containing axioms, for example ‘Eviscerate the bowel early’, ‘Bleeding from the root of the mesentery is a trap’ and ‘Deep liver sutures are not a crime’. Finally, the illustrations are simple but useful and complement the text. I particularly like the accounts of the Cattell–Braasch manoeuvre to access the inframesocolic retroperitoneum and the Mattox manoeuvre to access the supracoeliac aorta. There is a lot of wisdom borne from the experience in this book. It is a must read for general surgeons involved in the management of patients with trauma.