Tumours of the Hand

Tumours of the hand are highly varied, their only common feature being their location in an organ in which preservation of sensation and mobility must be our primary concern. Although the subject of numerous studies, they are not well known to the majority of practitioners, as most of these studies deal with only one type of tumour. Now, however, we have a book devoted entirely to these tumours as a whole, with a clear and logical approach to the clini- cal features, histology, differential diagnosis and treatment of each type, together with an extensive bibliography. The need for such a work - one I believe to be unique of its kind - has long been felt, for tumours of the hand often raise difficult problems of diagno- sis, prognosis and treatment. As regards differential diagnosis, this book is plainly very useful; it can be consulted like a classification. In recent years, diagnosis has been improved by new methods of investigation, such as ther- mography, scintigraphy, arteriography and serial angiography, etc. Though very expensive, the use of these sophisticated techniques sometimes proves valuable for the diagnosis of certain bony or vascular tumours that would otherwise be difficult to approach. Such methods should not be overused; when the lesion is easily accessible, biopsy is the correct procedure. In every case, biopsy provides the only certain method of diagnosis, even though histo- logical interpretation may be difficult and calls for great experi- ence; the penalties of error can be very serious.