Best way to supplement a poor anatomy course?

[Jabbed]

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My school's anatomy program is terrrrrible and I'm worried about walking into the OR in 3rd year without a clue. What's the best self-study program to supplement my weak background? I was considering watching the entire Ackland series and using the clinical correlations within Moore's/BRS as a means of identifying the more clinically relevant features. Alternatively, it might just be more productive to use the anatomical discussions in case files/surgical recall. Thoughts?

 

[Medstart108]

Gray's Anatomy for Students.. or Netter's. But Gray's is better if you have very little background in Anatomy and time to go through all of it.

There might be better books out there but I just know Gray's is all right.

 

[Jabbed]

Gray's Anatomy for Students.. or Netter's. But Gray's is better if you have very little background in Anatomy and time to go through all of it.

There might be better books out there but I just know Gray's is all right.

My concern with using one of the more traditional books is that I'll be bogged down in a lot of the minutia and unable to recognize or properly appreciate the clinically important information. Considering that I don't have the pressure of doing well in anatomy anymore, I really want to find something that will help reinforce my knowledge base rather than inundate me with sub-clinical information.

 

[awared2]

My concern with using one of the more traditional books is that I'll be bogged down in a lot of the minutia and unable to recognize or properly appreciate the clinically important information. Considering that I don't have the pressure of doing well in anatomy anymore, I really want to find something that will help reinforce my knowledge base rather than inundate me with sub-clinical information.

I'm not sure that you can really call any anatomy in the body minutiae, you should know everything that is listed in your dissector. We follow Grants, and I use Rohen for real pictures and netters for comic pictures to study from before going into lab and then after

 

[Medstart108]

I've flipped through Moore's before its also a pretty decent option, but its similar to Gray's for students, maybe less minutiae though.

 

[ACSurgeon]

My concern with using one of the more traditional books is that I'll be bogged down in a lot of the minutia and unable to recognize or properly appreciate the clinically important information. Considering that I don't have the pressure of doing well in anatomy anymore, I really want to find something that will help reinforce my knowledge base rather than inundate me with sub-clinical information.

Just prepare of operations the night before by studying the relevant anatomy. Nobody relies on their first year anatomy course for OR prep.

Going through access surgery or any surgical atlas before scrubbing a case will be useful as a student. Your goal won't be to memorize the steps of the operation, but to learn pertinent anatomy.

 

[Psai]

Read about the case then Google the anatomy. Maybe glance at surgical recall

 

[seminoma]

My school's anatomy program is terrrrrible and I'm worried about walking into the OR in 3rd year without a clue. What's the best self-study program to supplement my weak background? I was considering watching the entire Ackland series and using the clinical correlations within Moore's/BRS as a means of identifying the more clinically relevant features. Alternatively, it might just be more productive to use the anatomical discussions in case files/surgical recall. Thoughts?

If your school's anatomy program is terrible then all the students in the recent past have showed up in the OR knowing nothing too... thus the attendings are going to have expectations commensurate with that.

Probably just read NMS and pestana.

 

[MedSchoolSurvivor]

As a medical student I would review netters until I knew it like the back of my hand. When an attending pimps you, it is usually a question about anatomy related to the surgery. What I do as a resident is a bit different. At least for orthopedics there is a great book called "Surgical Exposures in Orthopaedics" by Hoppenfeld, which shows you all the relevant anatomy for a surgery in a given anatomic location. I think this method is much more efficient than what I did in medical school. If I were you, I would find out which cases you have for an upcoming week, find a good source that explains the surgical technique, and then read the exposure part which well tell you all the relevant anatomy, and supplement that with a netters book for simplification and clarification.

One caveat is that this probably will not help you get an extra points on your NBME, but will make you look impressive in the OR with all other things being equal.

 

[neusu]

Acklund video's are nice.

There are a couple of nice books out there with labeled cadaver specimens that I used for my practicals back in the day.

 

[Stagg737]

I've flipped through Moore's before its also a pretty decent option, but its similar to Gray's for students, maybe less minutiae though.

I was going to say the same. Not an amazing book in general, but there's about 300-400 pages worth of 'blue boxes' that are just clinical notes. Idk how relevant it would be to your situation, but it seemed decent for us.

 

[operaman]

Yeah I would not worry about it at all, to be honest, and that's very out of character for me to say! Here's why:

1) OR anatomy is not like M1 anatomy. Even if you were the Jedi master of M1 anatomy, OR anatomy presents new challenges.
2) The time required to learn ALL of anatomy to an adequate level AND remember it until M3 will preclude studying much else.
3) You're learning a lot more than you think.
4) The only way to really learn surgical anatomy is to become a surgeon. There's no book you can read or video you can watch - it just takes time.

So give it your all this year and learn everything you can, but learn everything else too. Anatomy pimping is such a small part of the pimpage you will receive, even on your surgery rotation. Oh, and there's that little matter of boards and needing to be ready to crush it in one more year. Trust that you'll have enough time to read before OR cases; you will. If you want to bookmark it for later, here's my quick and dirty method to prep for the OR as an MS3:

1) Know the patient's H&P cold. So cold you could present it from memory. Know the whole story and know WHY you are operating.
2) Find a youtube video of the operation. There are hundreds of these for just about any surgery.
3) Get out netters or whatever atlas you like and pour over it.
4) Find a chapter in a surgery text or a review article about the operation you're doing. Read it. I used to print these and keep copies in my pocket to read between cases. I saw my residents doing this and just kinda picked it up from them.
5) If you have a surgical atlas in your library or available online, see if the procedure is in there. This will help with landmarks and the approach you'll likely use.
6) Google [insert name of operation] pimp questions. There are some classic questions that go with many operations. Know them if you can.
7) Watch a different youtube video and see how much you can identify as you watch it. Pay attention to key points in the case. These are usually the ONLY things in a video as the surgeon has edited out all the in between stuff.

All in all, you can do all of that in about an hour once you get good at it. Maybe a little more for something bigger or if it's your first time seeing a particular case and the anatomy is tricky. Good luck!