Sleisenger and Fordtran’s Gastrointestinal and Liver Disease

Edited by Mark Feldman, Lawrence S Friedman, Lawrence J Brandt. Philadelphia: Saunders Elsevier, 2006, £180 (hardback), pp 1–1540 and 1541–2890. ISBN 1-4160-0245-6 The 8th edition of this famous textbook is the first not to be edited by either of the original editors and the 3rd edition to include hepatology as well as gastroenterology, with 38 of the 124 chapters focused on liver and biliary disease. This book thus provides a comprehensive reference for general gastroenterologists as well as more specialised practitioners in gastroenterology and hepatology. The two volumes are presented in a modern glossy style with clear figures and plenty of high-quality line drawings and tables which make the individual chapters easy to read. The first section on basic biology is relatively brief, but this is supplemented by introductions to the subsequent sections that include anatomical, embryological and developmental aspects for each organ. The book is multi-authored with 177 contributors, and …