Customer Reviews

Weedon's Skin Pathology, 2-Volume Set: Expert Consult - Online and Print, 3e

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

ISBN 978-0702039416: Two volumet set. Volume 1 is probably the same as the single volume version (since it bears a separate ISBN identical to the single volume version). Volume 2 is 881 pages of references (claimed to be 35,000 in all), and references only. Volume 2 is kind of a waste: the paper is the same as volume 1, with identical marginal color codes. Large type face. The set is currently sold at USD 351.

ISBN 9780702034855: single volume version, which is probably the same as volume 1 in the two-volume set. Currently sold at USD 315. Full access to the online materials (including references).

So the extra 36 bucks of the two-volume set is for a thick volume of references. Want it or not, you decide.

(By the way, the Odze book of Surgical Pathology of GI Tract .... also eliminates the references and leaves it all to the online database. )

Improved from the last version. Much better paper, better photos, updated text. References are now in the second volume or on-line.

The latest edition of Weedon's now classic book will probably be the last, or at least the last Weedon will write. This is perhaps lucky, since by my calculations if the book continued to increase in size at the same rate compared with previous editions, it would break most bookshelves in a couple more editions.

This book is as close to comprehensive as one can get in a single author/single volume text (and it is in reality a single volume, the second is solely references!!). The approach is familiar: inflammatory conditions covered predominantly by a pattern approach which is a modification of Ackerman's, with separate (in many cases additional)coverage of some areas (e.g. infections) by a more traditional disease mechanism based classification. I think Weedon has struck the correct balance in dealing with the difficulty of a single disease manifesting with varying patterns- most conditions are covered in detail in the single most logical place, with brief descriptions and referral to the major section being found with the "secondary importance" reaction pattern or patterns. The coverage of neoplastic conditions is pretty standard and sound, the pictures in this section are a little patchy in quality and for some lesions more scant than might be ideal.

My criticisms of this book are:
1. Sometimes there is too much detail. The book is stuffed with unfiltered descriptions of single case reports and small series, many which seem to be of dubious merit when one looks at the original sources. In many places there are huge lists of disease associations, medication causes etc. with no real attempt to focus on the most critical issues. Weedon seems to have rarely taken a decision to leave something out. The approach is encyclopaedic, and has provided me with many a start down a fruitful line of enquiry with regard to a case, but in an era when everyone sits with PubMed open beside their microscope, I am not sure that it is actually necessary and it certainly makes the book less accessible.

2. There is little direct coverage of differential diagnosis. All the information one could want is probably present in the book, but it is often not explicitly set out.

3. The clinical information presented is largely not the clinical information the target audience needs. Although coverage of treatment has been added, the descriptions of clincial presentations are brief and clinical photos are (entirely?) absent. No one is going to use this book as a reference on treatment. What (dermato)pathologists need is information on clinical presentations that are critical to diagnosis- an understanding of where clinical and pathological diagnostic algorithms overlap and where they diverge and when this overlap/divergence is important and when it can be safely ignored.

This being said, the work is a monumental effort, a valuable diagnostic and learning aid and and a wonderful contribution to the literature. The question of which is the best general dermatopathology text is probably a meaningless one, but if it comes up over drinks at a conference, I think I would find myself arguing for Weedon. It is undoubtedly a must have, albeit not a perfect book.

I'm a pathology resident and my dermatopathology professor always recommended this book, I bought it but it has a lot of rare information, "one case have been reported"... this is weedon's favorite phrase, and no visual examples (the worst in a pathology book), it mentions the subtypes of e.g. Spitz nevus, and it includes NO PHOTOS!!! etc... the pathology staff uses McKee's and it contains 5x more photos, which I think is 1000 times more useful than rare and confussing information, and one of my professor's lend me his Barnhill textbook and it contains very nice charts and tables for comparing entities, both I think are very good book, McKee's is the best without a doubt. Rappini's which I own, is very useful too. Another 1000x times phrase used by this book is "5 reports support this findings but one (or two) reviews of the literature disagree with it"... it's just too much, waste of time, confusing and blinding because of the lack of visual examples. Maybe for a dermatopathology fellow or an activity where a lot of rare information is needed (like research), this may be a more useful book, but for me, this book is not practical, and many times, not useful for learning an entity nor distinguishing between common entities.