Thirty-seven years after the first edition of Syndromes of the Head and Neck, the fourth edition arrives to maintain the tradition of excellence. Over the past 11 years, the third edition of ''Syndromes'' has remained the standard text for students and practitioners interested in craniofacial malformations. Users of this remarkable text asked, ''What could be done to improve on this reference source?'' to which I reply, take a look. ... Gorlin, Cohen, and Hennekam have done it.
Once again, the text has gotten a new look, a beautifully bound text that is formatted appropriately for ease of reading. Inside, readers will find many similarities and many improvements over the third edition. The authors have kept the chapter titles and numbers identical to the third edition, making the transition and cross-referencing easy. A single chapter entitled ''Syndromes of the Eye'' has been added, and rather than place this in the middle of the book, it is added as the 30th chapter, thus keeping all previous chapter subjects identical to the previous edition. Many new photographs, drawings, and tables have been added to support the well-written text. As with previous editions, the image quality is outstanding.
A great deal of new information has been added to the fourth edition. These include newly defined syndromes, new information on molecular etiology, and a listing of Web sites and computerized databases useful for additional referencing. The authors have changed the page margins, reduced duplicative text and photographs, and slightly reduced font size in order to keep this as a one-volume text. Even with these changes, the page count of the text has increased nearly 30% since the third edition, indicating the vast increase in information and supportive references contained within. As an example, the third edition described 250 syndromes involving orofacial clefting, whereas this edition contains 350. Now at 1,283 pages and more than 7 pounds,