The “ESASO Course Series”, summarises, in print, the essentials of the courses of the European School for Advanced Studies in Ophthalmology (ESASO). After two volumes dealing with medical and surgical retina, now a third volume titled "Cataract" is available.

The topics of this volume range from updates with everyday surgical pearls, to chapters on intraocular lenses (IOLs) and femtosecond laser cataract surgery. Surprisingly, the title image of the volume pictures an eye with intracorneal ring segments. A look at the table of contents reveals that the last 60 pages deal with topics from refractive surgery, including an update on corneal refractive surgery, phakic IOLs (pIOLs) and intracorneal surgery. This inconsistency and also the somewhat heterogenic choice of topics (two chapters on femtosecond laser cataract surgery with the LenSx laser, two chapters on pIOL) are probably explained by merging the cataract and refractive surgery courses into one book.

The first chapter offers a plethora of valuable pearls, especially for the novice surgeon. The following two chapters, authored by Roberto Belucci, give summarised basics on IOL design and accommodative and multifocal IOLs. The two chapters on femtosecond laser cataract surgery partially duplicate topics, but give a good overview over the most recent technique in cataract surgery. The remaining chapters deal with the latest developments in refractive surgery. While the chapter on pIOLs is a review of the different models and techniques, the remaining chapters provide updates on interesting topics such as pIOL implantation in keratoconus eyes, intracorneal and corneal surgery.

The volume will be primarily useful as a reference for an institutional library or as an add-on for the personal library. The heterogeneity of topics (updates vs. reviews, cataract vs. refractive surgery) and the relative under-representation of the title subject will most likely prevent the volume from being a first-line quick reference. However, the single chapters by themselves contain valuable information especially for the surgeon-in-training to gain a quick overview.