Book review: Ryan’s Retina (seventh edition)

A whole volume is dedicated to medical retina, and what’s not to like there! I found it so extensive that even as a medical retina specialist, there were moments where little gaps in my knowledge I’d been unaware of were neatly plugged. As I said, it is not light reading, so perhaps not as user friendly to the non-retinal specialist, but it's all there if you want it. That said, the uveitis section was not comprehensive enough and neither did it appear to have been updated from the previous edition.

Volume three incorporates surgical retina and tumours of the vitreous, retina and choroid. The former, I can't comment too much on, but it seems well put together. I enjoyed the section on tumours of the retina, choroid and vitreous and think many will find it useful.

The negatives? I hated the ‘enhanced digital version’. The only thing it enhanced was my blood pressure. It is on the Elsevier eBooks+ platform and was clunky and infuriating. I found it difficult to navigate the videos and gave up part way through, which is a shame because what I did see was very good.

Ryan’s Retina is the go-to textbook for any retinal subspecialty or a generalist who wants an update on a particular retinal pathology. It is largely user friendly but the digital version may have you wishing you’d walked to the library instead.

Dr Narme Deva is a consultant ophthalmologist at Eye Institute, Greenlane Clinical Centre and Retina Specialists in Auckland. She spent several years at Moorfields Eye Hospital and holds a doctorate of medicine from the University of Auckland for research into ocular wound-healing modification.