Rehabilitation of Memory

1390 of reference should further information be required on these conditions.The chapter on vascular disorders of the spinal cord was well written, up to date and covered all vascular disorders from infarction to extramedullary haematomas and arteriovenous malformations.The only slight criticism of this otherwise highly readable chapter was that the author did not quite make clear the distinction between "pure" intramedullary arteriovenous malformations and dural arteriovenous fistulae.Part II commences with an excellent chapter by Leonard Malis on spinal cord tumours.This was obviously based on the author's huge wealth of clinical experience and I would recommend this chapter for anyone concerned with the management of spinal cord tumours.The illustrations are plentiful and of high quality throughout the chapter.There are little pearls of advice on diagnosis and surgical treatment, for instance on the removal of intramedullary haemangioblastomas without getting into the uncontrollable haemorrhage that can occur.Dr Malis mentions the subject of anterior decompression of metastatic tumours of the vertebral column, a subject which is perhaps gaining more attention than it has done in the past.Following on from this is a short chapter on the pathology of different types of spinal tumour which makes up for its brevity with a list of 247 references.The many aspects of systemic cancer involving the spinal cord are dis- cussed including myelopathy secondary to chemotherapy, radiation myelopathy, and non-metastatic effects on the spinal cord.Unfortunately this chapter still recommends pantopaque myelography and there is virtu- ally no mention of MRI as a vastly superior method of diagnosing this problem.Slightly out of place in this section on spinal cord tumours is a very good chapter on infections of the spinal cord.With the exception of epidural abscesses these infections are regarded more as an orthopaedic condition in some neurosurgical centres in the United Kingdom, making this chapter very useful for neurosurgical trainees in this position.Once again, however, there is little mention of MRI.In the second half of part II chapters are included on syphilis of the spinal cord, tetanus, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, the stiff man syndrome, toxic metabolic and deficiency diseases and demyelinating diseases affecting the spinal cord.The merits of including these under the heading of infections and cancer is certainly open to question and I regarded these final six chapters as a comforting source of reference should I