Alimentary Tract Radiology

Alimentary Tract Radiologyis truly an encyclopedic work that encompasses the entire gamut of gastrointestinal radiology, including every disease entity and examination modality. More than 100 contributors have written 86 chapters. The work is divided into two volumes of approximately 1000 pages each. Like any compendium, it suffers from a diversity of styles and an unevenness in the detail and throughness of presentation. As an example, the chapter "Radiographic-Endoscopic Correlations in the Gastrointestinal Tract" receives only 18 pages, but the chapter "Infections and Infestations" receives 65 pages. The editors remark in the preface, "We are presenting subjects that are controversial and therefore require some duplication to present different points of view." This is somewhat of an understatement. There is a great deal of redundancy, not necessarily to present different points of view, but often merely restating the same point of view. Another disturbing feature is the practice of adding an