Titanium in Medicine

Abstract

Edited by D M Brunette, P Tengvall, M Textor and P Thomsen, Springer Verlag: 2001. Cost £147.00 (ISBN 3-540-66936-1) My first response just looking at the flyer for this book was that it was expensive. However, I began to realise the reason for this cost when I picked the book up: it is large, heavy (1.58kg) and extremely well produced. The subtitle is ‘materials science, surface science, engineering, biological responses and medical applications’ and all of these areas are covered in excellent detail. I also started by wondering how the editors and authors could fill nearly 1000 pages without duplication, but found that anything one could want to know about titanium as a biomaterial is covered. The main sections cover the metallurgy and fabrication, surface engineering, biological performance and finally medical applications. The chapters are extremely well referenced, with between 30 and 288 references per chapter. The editors come from three different countries with four different specialisms and the chapter authors they have assembled work in three additional countries, both sides of the Atlantic, and with expertise from clinicians through engineers and materials scientists to biological scientists. Despite more than half the authors being non-native English speakers, I found the writing and editing such that as a reader I was not aware of their native language.