First Aid doesn't seem to have much, if any, anatomy. Is this normal?

[420 blaze it]

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Hi all,

So my plan has been to go along with board review materials throughout first year to supplement my lectures. We started anatomy and I noticed that FA 2016 does not even have a section for anatomy in the general principles chapter. So I got FA General Principles and the anatomy chapter on that seems pretty sparse as well. I don't know a lot about Step 1 so I was just wondering what is up with this? I thought FA was the go-to for Step but it seems I will have to use something like BRS for anatomy... Can someone give me a heads up?

 

[TBV]

There isn't much straight up anatomy on step 1. I maybe got 5 questions that required specific anatomy knowledge.

 

[420 blaze it]

Thanks brother. Also I returned to this thread to give a link to this post... It seems to have a good book list , and I suspect there might be a few more M1s who will have a similar question to me in the coming days.

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/threads/official-usmle-step-1-booklist.187956/

 

[420 blaze it]

There isn't much straight up anatomy on step 1. I maybe got 5 questions that required specific anatomy knowledge.

Would you recommend keeping up with anatomy Anki flash cards after my anatomy course ends for step?

 

[Taddy Mason]

Would you recommend keeping up with anatomy Anki flash cards after my anatomy course ends for step?

No. If you know your upper extremity nerves, lower extremity nerves, and neuro anatomy you should be able to answer 99% of what little anatomy is on step.

 

[TBV]

No. If you know your upper extremity nerves, lower extremity nerves, and neuro anatomy you should be able to answer 99% of what little anatomy is on step.

Add on neuroanatomy (stroke where does what) a very general understanding of how the gut gets its blood supply, chambers of the heart and you're pretty much good for step

Edit: you totally said neuroanatomy and I just can't read good

 

[Redpancreas]

Hi all,

So my plan has been to go along with board review materials throughout first year to supplement my lectures. We started anatomy and I noticed that FA 2016 does not even have a section for anatomy in the general principles chapter. So I got FA General Principles and the anatomy chapter on that seems pretty sparse as well. I don't know a lot about Step 1 so I was just wondering what is up with this? I thought FA was the go-to for Step but it seems I will have to use something like BRS for anatomy... Can someone give me a heads up?

I thought this too, but there's actually quite a lot in there if you know where to look. For all the nerves and muscle stuff, check the MSK section. Also, Uworld has a lot more stuff.
Anatomy was my worst class overall, but it's like one of my higher subsections on Uworld because all they really care about are the clinically important nuggets that are repeated over and over during anatomy, then physio, then systems, etc. For example, the prostatectomy will put you at risk for ED, the common peroneal will lead to foot drop, a pancoast tumor can cause Horners. This will all be repeated ad nauseum over the course of a typical curriculum when you learn pathophysiology.

 

[Psai]

Study hard in class. You're gonna get something like hey this guy has a claw hand remember the brachial plexus?

 

[OnePunchBiopsy]

Most common questions off the top of my head are things like:

1.) Median, radial, or ulnar nerve pathology (carpel tunnel, wrist drop, claw hand, erb-duchenne palsy)
2.) Posterior duodenal ulcer hitting gastroduodenal artery
3.) Epideral hematoma involving middle meningial artery, passing through foramen spinosum
4.) Voice hoarsness in pancoast tumor compressing left recurrent laryngeal nerve
5.) Varicocele more common if left testicle due to left testicular vein draining into renal vein, while right drains directly into IVC.

Ignore my typos. It'll be spelled correctly on the exam!

 

[Taddy Mason]

Most common questions off the top of my head are things like:

1.) Median, radial, or ulnar nerve pathology (carpel tunnel, wrist drop, claw hand, erb-duchenne palsy)
2.) Posterior duodenal ulcer hitting gastroduodenal artery
3.) Epideral hematoma involving middle meningial artery, passing through foramen spinosum
4.) Voice hoarsness in pancoast tumor compressing left recurrent laryngeal nerve
5.) Varicocele more common if left testicle due to left testicular vein draining into renal vein, while right drains directly into IVC.

Ignore my typos. It'll be spelled correctly on the exam!

Also horseshoe kidney and IVC and where CNs leave the skull.

 

[lymphocyte]

Pelvic anatomy is worth reviewing, especially as it relates to incontinence. I got 3ish questions on that.

One anatomy question was straight up: what organ is this? Too easy.
One anatomy question was "What's the course of X"? where X was something really obscure. I rando-clicked and moved on.

The only radiology questions I got (including a transverse CT slice), I could answer from anatomical principles alone. Embryology is generally low yield, but it helps a lot conceptually for these sorts of questions (check out the Kaplan 2010 embryology lectures).

But usually it's anatomy in a clinical context. To keep adding to the great list above thus far: portal circulation, foregut/midgut/hindgut derivatives, lymph node drainage, inguinal anatomy (direct vs indirect vs femoral hernia), foetal circulation, coronary circulation, neck anatomy in relation to embryology, and the course of the ureter and the narrowest parts--all of these have strong clinical correlations.

Examples: portal circulation explains the signs and symptoms of portal hypertension (and how procedures like TIPS work); gut derivatives explain abdo pain referral; lymph node drainage tells you where to look for testicular cancer mets; inguinal anatomy dictates presentation and surgical repair for hernias; foetal circulation explains a lot; coronary circulation tells you why a right coronary occlusion can give you AV block or why an inferior STEMI might precipitously drop your blood pressure in response to nitrates; neck anatomy leads to perennially favourite questions about thyroglossal cysts and ectopic thyroid tissue; the narrowest parts of the ureter tell you where to look for obstructing kidney stones, and the course of the ureter is uber important for pelvic surgery... all of these concepts may or may not have appeared on my test, and they certainly showed up on UWorld.

"Step 1 Secrets" is a nice book. (I've enjoyed the Secrets series, mostly the Physical Exam and EM ones; plus they're free.99 through our school.) The "Clinical Anatomy" chapter might be worth a read. It's pretty affable, and I like the question-and-answer format.

Still, FA and UWorld should be more than enough.

 

[Redpancreas]

Pelvic anatomy is worth reviewing, especially as it relates to incontinence. I got 3ish questions on that.

One anatomy question was straight up: what organ is this? Too easy.
One anatomy question was "What's the course of X"? where X was something really obscure. I rando-clicked and moved on.

The only radiology questions I got (including a transverse CT slice), I could answer from anatomical principles alone. Embryology is generally low yield, but it helps a lot conceptually for these sorts of questions (check out the Kaplan 2010 embryology lectures).

But usually it's anatomy in a clinical context. To keep adding to the great list above thus far: portal circulation, foregut/midgut/hindgut derivatives, lymph node drainage, inguinal anatomy (direct vs indirect vs femoral hernia), foetal circulation, coronary circulation, neck anatomy in relation to embryology, and the course of the ureter and the narrowest parts--all of these have strong clinical correlations.

Examples: portal circulation explains the signs and symptoms of portal hypertension (and how procedures like TIPS work); gut derivatives explain abdo pain referral; lymph node drainage tells you where to look for testicular cancer mets; inguinal anatomy dictates presentation and surgical repair for hernias; foetal circulation explains a lot; coronary circulation tells you why a right coronary occlusion can give you AV block or why an inferior STEMI might precipitously drop your blood pressure in response to nitrates; neck anatomy leads to perennially favourite questions about thyroglossal cysts and ectopic thyroid tissue; the narrowest parts of the ureter tell you where to look for obstructing kidney stones, and the course of the ureter is uber important for pelvic surgery... all of these concepts may or may not have appeared on my test, and they certainly showed up on UWorld.

"Step 1 Secrets" is a nice book. (I've enjoyed the Secrets series, mostly the Physical Exam and EM ones; plus they're free.99 through our school.) The "Clinical Anatomy" chapter might be worth a read. It's pretty affable, and I like the question-and-answer format.

Still, FA and UWorld should be more than enough.

The Secrets series is indeed titled well. For all that I talk about UFap'ing, the prose style offered by Secrets is quite illuminating even if it's still passive and not many people know about the series.

I definitely think every medical student would gain something by pre/post-reading that in addition to Pathoma before lectures. It really highlights some BASIC but elusive points that lecturers often miss.

My one gripe with it is that it tries too hard to be comprehensive. Yes...I know what Stroke Volume is...but then there's a decent question about AV fistulas in there to make me realize there's still stuff I don't understand about the topic.

 

[masaraksh]

Yeah first aid is horrible for anatomy. But anatomy is low yield for step 1 (generally) so it makes sense. For me I did really well in anatomy during M1 and that really kind of ended up being the most important thing for me. I hated the anatomy mnemonics in first aid and how superficial first aid was for anatomy.

Ultimately, its probably better to spend time doing more questions than reviewed anatomy in too much detail.

 

[gyngyn]

There isn't much anatomy on the exam, especially given how much time we devote to teaching it.