Edited by John Reynard, Simon Brewster, Suzanne Biers and Naomi Neal (4^th Edition)

Published April 2019 by Oxford University Press

Price £34.99

https://global.oup.com/academic/product/oxford-handbook-of-urology-9780198783480?cc=gb&lang=en&

You have to hand it to Oxford University Press, they continue to relentlessly churn out superb books in their outstanding Oxford Medical Handbooks series and this book is no exception. Like many of its siblings in this series, it is more than just a simple handbook. This is a very good textbook of urology ideal for both trainees and generalists within the speciality as well as primary care personnel. Now in a healthy 4^th edition and this review was written shortly after publication; this urology book is very up to date. Although you may think that this book is a slender book, it is of the standard height of the other books in the Oxford Medical Handbooks series but it comes in at a chunky 864 pages packed full of relevant information.

It covers the speciality in impressive detail and seems to be quite wide ranging in its subject matter. I would think it is very useful for a urology specialist either in training or an established practitioner. Equally this is a great book for primary care people allowing healthcare professionals access to a superb array of urology topics. As with other books in the Oxford Medical Handbook series, this is well written, very clinically focussed and highly relevant to modern day to day practice. The text is broken up into very readable chunks under logical headings. There are some tables and images but this is very much a text based book which is very easy to dip in and out of. Equally it is great for a quick read on a specific topic which can help with patient management or enhance your knowledge on a particular subject area.

As a GP I found this book excellent. I found the section on Prostate cancer screening very helpful (Pages 330-331 and page 336) with the latter page a superb practical help. Another excellent example is the superb coverage of Peyronie’s disease on page 594. It does not take long to read sections such as these but they certainly brings the reader up to date. These are just random samples of the excellence of this book. This excellence is found through the book.

The coverage on common and less common urology topics is also excellent and it would certainly meet my needs as a GP here in the UK. Ideally this book should be available in a handy access point for a front-line clinician and although this review version does not come with an electronic version, I am sure the latter would be very useful.

All in all, this is a superb handbook review of urology that is up to date and accessible and comes in at very keen price. The Oxford Medical Handbook series is well known and respected and this book is another proud member of this excellent family.

Dr Harry Brown

May 2019