PocketRadiologist: Temporal Bone. Top 100 Diagnoses

American Journal of Neuroradiology

Harnsberger, Wiggins, Swartz, Hudgins. WB Saunders Company; 2003. 320 pages, $62.95

“Temporal Bone” by Ric Harnsberger is another volume in the set of the “PocketRadiologist” series. This volume is well illustrated, informative, innovative, and like the others in the series, contains the key facts, imaging findings, differential diagnoses, pathology, clinical concepts and of course images of what were felt to be the top 100 diagnoses. There is a proper mixture of CT and MR images, but it is the thirty-seven color drawings scattered among the 100 diagnoses that win the day. One only wishes there were even more of them. As a suggestion for future editions, this reviewer would hope to see for example, color drawings of a cochlear implant, temporal bone fractures, one or two of the cochlear/vestibular anomalies. When something is as good as the drawings in this book, the impulse is to want even more of the same.

The book is divided into ten sections: external auditory canal, middle ear, inner ear, petrous apex, facial nerve, cerebellar pontine angle, trauma, central skull base, posterior skull base, diffuse skull base and each section deals with the most frequent diagnoses in that area. To this reviewer, the way the facts are presented (in a bullet-like format) is more appealing and more useful than a narrative type of presentation that contains similar information. With the format in this book, more information can be put into a small, easily portable volume. This style may rub traditionalists the wrong way, but so be it —the ability to teach all the critical points is the objective here, and short of a quiz-like format, this is the most effective means to achieve that.

For those who are not involved in the interpretation of a large number of temporal bone studies, the details of the anatomy and the findings of relatively uncommon abnormalities (just because this is called the “top 100,” don’t think most are common) needs constant refreshing. This book fills that bill with high quality CT and MR images along with important clinical pearls.

Do not expect to see illustrations and images of normal temporal bone anatomy; this is certainly understandable given the author’s intent in writing this book. Therefore, if this text is going to be used as study material and the reader does not have a great familiarity with the radiology of the temporal bone, then another text (such as the chapter on the Temporal Bone in the Head and Neck Radiology book by Som and Curtin) needs to be nearby for reference.

This book is highly recommended to practicing radiologists and those in training, and this reviewer believes it, along with the other pocket books in this series, should be handy in all Radiology Departments. The task now for Dr. Harnsberger and Dr. Osborn, the prime movers of this series of “PocketRadiologist” books, is to devise a lab coat with multiple pockets to carry around all of these outstanding small books.