Best books for general surgery portion of plastics residency

[shujrk]

Hey guys,

Just matched into a combined plastics program this past week (!) and was wondering if anyone could comment on the best books to use during those first 3 years of general surgery. Textbooks, pocket books, Absite Review, etc.

I still have a bunch of books from rotations like Recall, NMS Surgery, and NMS Casebook. Do those have any use in the first 3 years?

Thanks!

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[Zulu451]

In a couple of months you are going to be a real doctor and should start reading real doctor books, how about Cameron, Greenfield or Sabiston.

Believe it or not, there is a reason why you are doing 3 years of general surgery. Please, don't approach it as 3 years that you will just have to tolerate in order to get to the 3 years that really matter. As a plastic surgeon you will need to know the principles of general surgery, how to care for critically ill patients. A plastic surgeon is much more than a fancy technician. You will become the guy that the other surgeons come to when they are faced with problems in their own fields. You should take this time to learn about surgery.

I apologize if I am coming on too strong, but these years will set your foundation for what you do for the rest of your career. Some of the best integrated track resident I know in my own program were the ones that learned general surgery better than the gen surg residents.

Good luck!

 

[Winged Scapula]

In a couple of months you are going to be a real doctor and should start reading real doctor books, how about Cameron, Greenfield or Sabiston.

Believe it or not, there is a reason why you are doing 3 years of general surgery. Please, don't approach it as 3 years that you will just have to tolerate in order to get to the 3 years that really matter. As a plastic surgeon you will need to know the principles of general surgery, how to care for critically ill patients. A plastic surgeon is much more than a fancy technician. You will become the guy that the other surgeons come to when they are faced with problems in their own fields. You should take this time to learn about surgery.

I apologize if I am coming on too strong, but these years will set your foundation for what you do for the rest of your career. Some of the best integrated track resident I know in my own program were the ones that learned general surgery better than the gen surg residents.

Good luck!

Excellent response.

In additional response to the OP, the Surgery forum is full of threads about preferred textbooks and study aids for the ABSITE.

 

[maxheadroom]

Do you have to take the ABSITE at your program? Most Integrated programs don't have that issue anymore. Combined programs are supposedly being phased out (they have to go Integrated or back to a true Independent format).

If you have to take the ABSITE, use the resources that the GenSurg residents at the program recommend. I was the last class to take the ABSITE at my program, partly because the Plastics residents staged a bit of a revolution and our PD finally told GenSurg to quit bothering us with it.

I disagree with the remarks that you need to focus on being a "good" general surgeon. You need to learn the basics of taking care of a surgical patient. You don't need three years for this, but that's how your program is currently structured. Plastic Surgeons don't manage critically ill patients (although there is a small remnant who are the primary physicians for Burns). We aren't the primary specialists for GI disorders. We don't work intra-thoracic (without the invitation of the CTVS guys).

As Plastic Surgery training continues to evolve and more and more Integrated programs move to a 1+5ish model, we will see the population of surgeons understand that WE ARE NOT GENERAL SURGEONS. We are closer to Ortho and ENT and as such our model of training will continue to move away from General Surgery and more towards specialty-specific training.

End point -- do whatever it is that your PD wants you to do for now.

 

[shujrk]

Thanks guys! I do agree that the more you know about medicine in general, the better doctor you will be regardless of what speciality you are in.

I know that at my program they do take the Absite for the first 3 years, but when I was on my interview they were looking at transitioning over to integrated since I believe this is going to be a requirement now.

In the end, I didn't want to sacrifice time I could be working on research or learning plastic surgery for focusing on general surgery, even in those first 3 years. But I do agree that I'm going to have to know this stuff to some degree.

Thanks for the advice! I'll be sure to talk to people in my program. If you have any other recommendations, let me know. Thank you!

 

[Zulu451]

Do you have to take the ABSITE at your program? Most Integrated programs don't have that issue anymore. Combined programs are supposedly being phased out (they have to go Integrated or back to a true Independent format).

If you have to take the ABSITE, use the resources that the GenSurg residents at the program recommend. I was the last class to take the ABSITE at my program, partly because the Plastics residents staged a bit of a revolution and our PD finally told GenSurg to quit bothering us with it.

I disagree with the remarks that you need to focus on being a "good" general surgeon. You need to learn the basics of taking care of a surgical patient. You don't need three years for this, but that's how your program is currently structured. Plastic Surgeons don't manage critically ill patients (although there is a small remnant who are the primary physicians for Burns). We aren't the primary specialists for GI disorders. We don't work intra-thoracic (without the invitation of the CTVS guys).

As Plastic Surgery training continues to evolve and more and more Integrated programs move to a 1+5ish model, we will see the population of surgeons understand that WE ARE NOT GENERAL SURGEONS. We are closer to Ortho and ENT and as such our model of training will continue to move away from General Surgery and more towards specialty-specific training.

End point -- do whatever it is that your PD wants you to do for now.

Max - To some degree you are correct. You will not be standing by the vent, tweaking the PEEP and PS, dialing in pressors and squeezing blood. You better be able to recognize when your patient is sick. If you do more than just out patient cosmo you need to know this stuff. You need to enough about what other services are doing to your patient to make sure it is the right thing and if your patient is in the right shape to operate or not. There is much, much more to plastic surgery than just being a technician. You have to be the complete surgeon. Unless you just want to do out patient cosmo. Then be all means.

 

[Stare Decisis]

What I have never understood is why other surgical specialties such as ENT, NeuroSurg, and Ortho can become perfectly fine surgeons and physicians without 3 years of GenSurg but plastic guys cannot. I am convinced this is just a manpower issue and gensurg wants bodies.

 

[maxheadroom]

What I have never understood is why other surgical specialties such as ENT, NeuroSurg, and Ortho can become perfectly fine surgeons and physicians without 3 years of GenSurg but plastic guys cannot. I am convinced this is just a manpower issue and gensurg wants bodies.

Bingo.

Yes, I do some outpatient cosmetic surgery in my practice, but the majority of my work is upper extremity. For the most part, the General Surgery portion of my training was wasted time. It doesn't take three years of preliminary training to make any of my trainees safe or competent medical practitioners. That's a bull**** argument that has been used by General Surgeons to keep Plastics training programs under their thumbs.