Atlas and Synopsis of Neonatology Rhishikesh Thakre and Srinivas Murki Jaypee Brothers Medical Publishers (P) Ltd., New Delhi 110 002, India. Pages: 279; Price: 795/-.

Clinical practice fails us many a times in bedside practice getting us closer to the realization that there is more that we don’t yet know than we know. Many a times we have read or heard about certain clinical phenomena or a condition, but not necessarily seen it. Also there may be reasons to believe some of these may be peculiar to Indian population or context.

With a collective contribution of over 50 experts in the field, the present publication is an illustrative compilation of 250 such clinical conditions / phenomena – normal or abnormal or / developmental peculiarities / syndromic associations / genetic disorders / malformations / skin conditions / iatrogenic mishaps. This atlas offers a reasonably good resource to complement day-to-day bedside learning of clinical neonatology. Additionally, the supporting text along with each photograph in a uniform format is a handy resource that will help the reader understand the condition in question.

It would have been useful to discuss problem-oriented conditions at some points rather than a specific diagnosis type e.g. to discuss a macrosomic baby, swelling on head, blue baby, facial asymmetry (mouth angle deviation), and then discuss common differential diagnoses of the same. Content validity and appropriateness for certain conditions, for example (prognosis and management of fresh still birth), need to be relooked at. While the idea of including a section on cultural practices is good, it needs to be built up content-wise.