Book Review

In reviewing this book of multiple-choice questions, I am reminded of my days as a medical student when I purchased a book of mnemonics with the idea of committing to memory various lists of seemingly unrelated and nondeducible anatomic data such as the structures entering the superior orbital fissure (Luscious French Tarts … or something like that comes to mind). My problem was that I had trouble remembering the mnemonics themselves. However, I was struck by the somewhat tongue-in-cheek homily that served as a forward to the tiny tome: “This book is presented more in the hope than the expectation that the reader will derive any benefit from it in his (or her) final examinations.”

Thankfully, the authors of Multiple Choice Questions in Plastic Surgery had quite the opposite thought: “…the knowledge base required or gained in the reading of this book is intended to enrich the learning experience of the reader and gives a firm base upon which further knowledge can be built.”

The book is designed for those studying for the American Boards, the FRCS (Plast), EBOPRAS, MCh, and other examinations. Some may wonder whether multiple-choice questions can serve as an adequate basis for anything, because the knowledge gained is nonsystematic and scattershot in nature. However, those who have had a recourse to Kaplan (“we build futures one success story at a time”) for the USMLE examination or the excellent Plastic Surgery in Review: Q&A from the Plastic Surgery Educational Foundation of ASPS would surely differ. In these preparation courses, the questions do, in fact, systematically cover the ground and as much knowledge is to be gleaned from the discussion of distractors as from the affirmation of correct answers.

However, the questions posed in this book, culled as they are from an international assembly of experts, are far less consistent in quality or systematic in organization. Furthermore, there are too few to carry out the more complete mission of those other worthy examples. Nevertheless, on the basis that all knowledge is good and that this book will not be read in isolation, there is something to be gained by perusing it.

For the American reader, it is fascinating to learn of the many eponymous conditions, tests, and procedures that afflict our patients, instruct our knowledge, and guide our scalpels. The section on the history of plastic surgery is particularly illuminating, but leaves us wanting more. For example, in a question on who was the first to operate and write about cleft lip repair in the 16th century we are offered Paré, Franco, de la Faye, James Cook of Warwick, and Guillemaneau. OK, Franco wrote Traites des Hernies in 1561, but who were the other dudes? Lack of discussion of the distractors is common (but not universal) in the answer section throughout this book and robs the reader of the more detailed knowledge so amply provided by Plastic Surgery in Review: Q&A. Some of the questions are supported by a reference or two, others not. There are examples of bad multiple-choice question structure such as double negatives and mutually exclusive answers, but these issues would only matter if the test were real. Despite these shortcomings, the book is an enjoyable read as long as one does not keep score. Some of the distractors are amusing: “In relation to penile reconstruction…. Vascularized bone reconstruction using a free fibular flap is a fallacy” (ba boom!). Some of the answers are gratuitous: Mitz and Peyronie (Plast Reconstr Surg 1976;58:80) are related to face lifting in one question, whereas the answer states that Peyronie was a French barber, who commanded the surgical corps of Louis XIV.

Multiple Choice Questions in Plastic Surgery is a paperback, 288 pages long with no illustrations except for the cover. It retails for $58 but can be had on Amazon for $42.70. It has value in embroidering as well as testing the knowledge gained during higher plastic surgery training. I would not consider it “a firm base upon which further knowledge can be built” but as a potpourri of important knowledge, historical minutiae, and interesting facts. I would anticipate a second edition with the answers to the questions fleshed out in more detail, but perhaps this is the triumph of expectation over hope.