Best Anesthesiology Textbooks

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postbacpremed87

postbacpremed87

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What is the best clinical anesthesiology textbook for a medical student to read before an anesthesiology rotation - also I wouldn't mind throwing a lot of money at one since I am considering anesthesia as a specialty. Thanks.
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I've heard Miller's Basics of Anesthesia.
 
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postbacpremed87 said:
What is the best clinical anesthesiology textbook for a medical student to read before an anesthesiology rotation - also I wouldn't mind throwing a lot of money at one since I am considering anesthesia as a specialty. Thanks.
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Anesthesia secrets. Anything else will be an overkill.

Forget baby Miller. If you want an intermediate-level text you will keep and use for long, get Morgan and Mikhail's Clinical Anesthesiology.

Search the forum. This question has been answered before.
 
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FFP said:
Anesthesia secrets. Anything else will be an overkill.

Baby Miller is a joke. If you want an intermediate-level text you will keep and use for long, get Morgan and Mikhail's Clinical Anesthesiology.

Search the forum. This question has been answered before.
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It hasn't been answered definitively. Everyone has differing opinions on the best textbook. Thanks for yours.
 
postbacpremed87 said:
It hasn't been answered definitively. Everyone has differing opinions on the best textbook. Thanks for yours.
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As with anything, a beginner should start with a handbook/manual, not a textbook. Textbooks are for reference.

If you want a complement to Anesthesia Secrets, get the Oxford American Handbook of Anesthesiology for 20 bucks. The two of them together will put you ahead of 90% of the graduating CA-1s (in theoretical knowledge).

Indeed, everybody has different opinions, and I haven't found a reason to change mine in years.
 
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I've not used the Oxford American Handbook but I've used the regular or British one, and I think it's great. Actually, that's what all the consultant (attending) as well as registrar (resident) anaesthetists (anesthesiologists) where I'm at recommend to med students. I didn't mention it because I wasn't sure how it would carryover to the U.S. context, and until now didn't know there was an American version.
 
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FFP said:
As with anything, a beginner should start with a handbook/manual, not a textbook. Textbooks are for reference.

If you want a complement to Anesthesia Secrets, get the Oxford American Handbook of Anesthesiology for 20 bucks. The two of them together will put you ahead of 90% of the graduating CA-1s (in theoretical knowledge).

Indeed, everybody has different opinions, and I haven't found a reason to change mine in years.
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Thank you for your sage advice! That is what I like to hear.
 
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Current resident here. I would recommend Baby Miller (first half) or the pdf Stanford has made for their residents that is suppose to be all the info you need for AKT1 (first month after residency exam). That would probably be more than enough and not too overkill for a med student (~50 pages). And free. http://ether.stanford.edu/ca1_new/
 
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bashwell said:
I've not used the Oxford American Handbook but I've used the regular or British one, and I think it's great. Actually, that's what all the consultant (attending) as well as registrar (resident) anaesthetists (anesthesiologists) where I'm at recommend to med students. I didn't mention it because I wasn't sure how it would carryover to the U.S. context, and until now didn't know there was an American version.
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The American version is 7 years old (while the British has been updated since), but 90% of the material still applies. I regularly gift an extra copy to a colleague and buy a new one. It can be found from third-party sellers for less than $20 shipped (even less than $10 on occasion).

But I strongly believe that Anesthesia Secrets will make a student/CA-1 shine in front of the attendings. Even if not the last version.

A lot of programs give baby Miller to their CA-1s, so I wouldn't invest in one, just borrow it.
 
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agammaglobulin said:
Current resident here. I would recommend Baby Miller (first half) or the pdf Stanford has made for their residents that is suppose to be all the info you need for AKT1 (first month after residency exam). That would probably be more than enough and not too overkill for a med student (~50 pages). And free. http://ether.stanford.edu/ca1_new/
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I second the Stanford tutorial. It's nicely done.

Also consider The Anesthesia Guide. Great little handbook, up-to-date, although a bit dense for students.
 
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Fyi anesthesia secrets is available through clinicalkey and anesthesia guide through accessmedicine, most schools subscribe these databases
 
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kkinase said:
Fyi anesthesia secrets is available through clinicalkey and anesthesia guide through accessmedicine, most schools subscribe these databases
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Where I work, the Oxford American handbook of anesthesiology is available, too, through one of these subscriptions. Baby Miller might be, too.
 
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Agree with the Stanford manual (referenced above) for medical students! Morgan and Mikhail for intern year. Barash and "big" Miller thereafter.
 
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I think the single best book in the specialty is Yao and artusio. If you know this book, you will pass both the written and oral boards with ease. No Ho needed.
 
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postbacpremed87 said:
What is the best clinical anesthesiology textbook for a medical student to read before an anesthesiology rotation - also I wouldn't mind throwing a lot of money at one since I am considering anesthesia as a specialty. Thanks.
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Ezekiel2517 said:
I think the single best book in the specialty is Yao and artusio. If you know this book, you will pass both the written and oral boards with ease. No Ho needed.
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:D
 
FFP said:
:D
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Yah I just went by the title of the thread. But still relevant if u end up going into the field. I wish I knew about the book as a CA-1. Amazing book. The peds section is admittedly a little too much for most people but everything else is great, perfect combination of being in depth yet at same time concise and easily readable
 
Miller is really just a reference for me... Look stuff up...
 
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amyl said:
Miller is really just a reference for me... Look stuff up...
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Oops, didn't notice it was an attending. Sorry.

I used Miller for the same purpose in residency, and I have always been impressed. I only owned a Longnecker briefly, before returning it. Barash seemed OK, but with Miller I had a-ha moments. I don't own a Miller anymore because I couldn't rationalize sinking $400+ in a book I rarely get to read.

For most practical stuff, I find that all these big anesthesia textbooks are useless (except for Jaffe), including the co-existing disease book. I will find more helpful information in the Oxford handbook or the Anesthesia Guide most of the time. I am trying to remember the disease I needed to find stuff about during the last month and, after I looked through like 4 textbooks without success (including the co-existing diseases one), I opened the Oxford handbook just for fun... And there it was, all I really needed to know! I was sooo frustrated.

For residents, I think M&M and Yao are outstanding.
 
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I would only like to add that for most schools your library will have institutional access to many of the books discussed here online, for free. Especially as a poor medical student check there first before spending your ramen money on a textbook for a month.
 
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Another vote for Anesthesia Secrets for med students. Also the NMS book is very old but good. It's concise. Check out the Anesthesia Survival Guide and maybe Anesthesia Crash Course too. Just pick one of these, whichever best suits you, and go from there. Then read the first half of either baby Miller or M&M. That should be more than enough reading for a med student.

Make sure to "do" as much as is safe for a med student to do under supervision since a lot of the fun learning experience of anesthesiology is as much practical stuff as it is theory. You learn a lot by doing in anesthesia.
 
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I just ordered a copy from amazon and it's literally the only real pocket carry book I can find, it has decent reviews but I'll see if it's as good as pocket medicine
 
I ordered and received a used copy of the Anesthesia Guide (thanks to @FFP for the recommendation!). I've been going through it while on OB anesthesia and love it so far. I don't know how it compares to Pocket Anesthesia in content or substance. But in terms of physical dimensions (length and width), just eye-balling it right now, but the Anesthesia Guide looks about an inch wider than Pocket Medicine (which I assume is similar in size to Pocket Anesthesia) and about 2 or 2.5 inches longer than Pocket Medicine. Also the Anesthesia Guide is much thicker than Pocket Medicine. Still I don't think it's too big to carry around or anything, personally. And the Anesthesia Guide is just such a beautiful and aesthetically pleasing book in my opinion. Lots of nice and clear photos, helpful diagrams, practically the entire book is in color, etc. I got it used on Amazon for around $15-20 (+ shipping) and the one I got was in "very good" condition but it looks practically brand new. I'd recommend buying it especially if you can get it used and cheap but in still relatively good condition.
 
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Couldn't have said it better. I just love that book. :)
 
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Starting CA-2 year here, we are given subspecialty books for most of our subspecialty months, but I have $1000 to burn this year. Probably spend 2-300 on qbanks and ACE questions for ITE, so I've got more than enough for a nice reference book. Thoughts?
 
I would recommend the Anesthesia Guide. Great for beginners and tells you how to set up the OR, what to what out for...yada, yada, yada.

Amazon product
 
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Duke's Anesthesia Secrets is pretty good for a medical school rotation


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Agree with dukes as a pretty good basic one.
 
If you only have a short rotation, I recall NMS Anesthesiology by Randall Gladden was very good too. 170 pages, fits in the pocket nicely and gives a really nice overview. A used copy will run about $17 on Amazon. The last version looks like 2003 but MAC is still MAC, dermatomes and gas laws haven't changed...
 
agammaglobulin said:
Current resident here. I would recommend Baby Miller (first half) or the pdf Stanford has made for their residents that is suppose to be all the info you need for AKT1 (first month after residency exam). That would probably be more than enough and not too overkill for a med student (~50 pages). And free. http://ether.stanford.edu/ca1_new/
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Hi, would you happen to know if Stanford has a similar tutorial textbook for radiology residency? Thanks
 
MS4 here: I'm sure you've done the rotation at this point, but I read both baby Miller and Anesthesia secrets. I liked baby Miller better. They both have essentially the same information, including many sentences that seemed almost word for word, but I like reading in paragraph form rather than individual factoids. Sections 2, 3 and 5 are all you need for your rotation. Be familiar with the top ten drugs: Versed, Fentanyl, Lidocaine, Propofol, Gases, Etomidate, Sux, Roc, Neo and Glyc (there are many more, but those are the baseline to know ahead of time if you wanted to be mildly impressive). Being familiar means mechanism, onset/duration, common side effects, contraindications...doses if you want to go the extra mile. Those plus airway knowledge will put you ahead of the curve when the rotation starts. Course this is all from the med student perspective...you'll need to/will learn more for residency and beyond.
 
Baby Miller is good for the starter, especially the first half. I used it when I was a student. Others in my class rotating through anesthesiology as medical students used Anesthesia secrets exclusively.

<<<This guy scored perfect on the end of rotation exam.

Anesthesia Guide looks promising from Amazon. I would like to see a book where all the doses of the drugs were readily at your fingertips.
 
I would add the anesthesia guide by mcgraw-hill. Its small and helps with OR setups and all which really helps with the rotations.
 
Anesthesia Secrets and Baby Miller are a bit too detailed for a medical student starting with minimal knowledge of the field. It's highly unlikely a student will get through either of those during a short rotation. For students, I recommend:

NMS Clinical Manual of Anesthesia covers all the topics I'd expect a medical student to know at an appropriate level of detail. It's pocket size and succinct.
Amazon product

The Stanford CA-1 Handbook is a "boot camp" sort of guide which covers much of the same material. It's available for free:
http://ether.stanford.edu/ca1_new/CA-1 Handbook_2015.pdf
 
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