The Art of Aesthetic Surgery: Principles and Techniques

The Art of Aesthetic Surgery: Principles and Techniques By Foad Nahai. Pp. 2488, three volumes. Quality Medical Publishing, St. Louis, Mo., 2005. Price $725. The Art of Aesthetic Surgery: Principles and Techniques is more than a multi-authored, three-volume text in full color on the entire field of aesthetic surgery, edited by Foad Nahai. It is also eminently readable, beautifully illustrated, and extraordinarily comprehensive. Most importantly, it is personal. Although multi-authored, much of the book is written by Dr. Nahai himself and represents his personal journey through a career in plastic surgery. His personal experience and narrative tie the chapters together in a way that is unique for books of this type. The three volumes provide the most comprehensive book on the topic of aesthetic surgery ever produced. In addition to covering all aspects of cosmetic surgery of the face and body, the three volumes contain sections on the financial aspects of aesthetic surgical practice; malpractice issues; less invasive procedures, such as fillers, resurfacing techniques, and fat grafting; anti-aging; Internet marketing and search engine optimization; and patient safety. The weakness of multi-authored textbooks is avoided in two critical ways. First, the famous authors who were invited to contribute actually wrote their chapters and did not delegate them to underlings. The result is a compendium of chapters that are opinionated and interesting rather than encyclopedic and boring. Second, as mentioned above, the editor’s presence is apparent from the first page to the last. Dr. Nahai wrote numerous chapters, including sections on clinical decision making for various procedures, and the result is a book that is coherent and consistent in format and reads like a novel. The book is appropriate, except that it is expensive, for all groups: medical students, paramedical personnel, competing medical specialties, residents in training, and experienced plastic surgeons. The seasoned plastic surgeon will not agree with everything in this book and may think that he or she can produce better results in certain areas, and of course some of the chapters are better than others, but everyone will enjoy and learn something from this monumental effort. All illustrations and photographs are in color, and it is immediately apparent that the book is the creation of Karen Berger and Quality Medical Publishing. No one else publishes books that look this good. The pages are characterized by extravagant use of space, so that the pages look inviting rather than crowded. One gets the impression the book was designed with the reader in mind, not the bottom line. The Art of Aesthetic Surgery is the best, most comprehensive, most attractive, most readable, and best-edited book ever produced on aesthetic surgery. Buy it.FigureCharles H. Thorne, M.D.