Good Text For Surgery Rotation

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bigneonglitter

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Can anyone recommend a good book to study from for 3rd year surgery Boards and on the floor? I've heard Surgical Recall is great. Any other suggesetions?

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Surgical Recall is useful for reading during down time during the day, i.e. the 10-15 minutes as the patient is getting prepped, you can read some quick facts about the topic related to the case you are scrubbing in. It doesn't provide the deeper explanations a real textbook would, however it does a good job of predicting some common pimp questions.

For a text, you should use Lawrence's Essentials of General Surgery. For a textbook, it's actually pretty accessible and not too dense. I would read as many of the big topics as you can in Lawrence -- breast, biliary disease, colon cancer, etc. Then fill in the rest by at least reading the general surgery section of recall cover to cover. It is hard to get through all of Lawrence in the 6-8 weeks of a surgery rotation, but do your best.
 
Surgical Recall is useful for reading during down time during the day, i.e. the 10-15 minutes as the patient is getting prepped, you can read some quick facts about the topic related to the case you are scrubbing in. It doesn't provide the deeper explanations a real textbook would, however it does a good job of predicting some common pimp questions.

For a text, you should use Lawrence's Essentials of General Surgery. For a textbook, it's actually pretty accessible and not too dense. I would read as many of the big topics as you can in Lawrence -- breast, biliary disease, colon cancer, etc. Then fill in the rest by at least reading the general surgery section of recall cover to cover. It is hard to get through all of Lawrence in the 6-8 weeks of a surgery rotation, but do your best.


I cut off the binding of my Lawrence text. By doing that, I could stuff the pages that I needed in my jacket pocket or inside my Surgical Recall for reading during downtime. When I was done with my rotation, I punched holes in the pages and put them in a binder. I ended up getting the pimp questions and getting my reading done on those long nights on call when I was babysitting a patient in radiology.
 
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I cut off the binding of my Lawrence text. By doing that, I could stuff the pages that I needed in my jacket pocket or inside my Surgical Recall for reading during downtime. When I was done with my rotation, I punched holes in the pages and put them in a binder. I ended up getting the pimp questions and getting my reading done on those long nights on call when I was babysitting a patient in radiology.

I haven't done surgery yet, but I too "cut off the bindings" of my main review books and stuff the pages in my pocket :thumbup: This has been VERY helpful on my other rotations to get small chunks of reading done. Plus I figure I bought these books for my own education, which should take priority over preserving them for resale. I also cut-out my Qbook practice tests for each rotation, to have a good supply of MCQ's.

This whole habit started for me with First Aid for the Wards, when I carried the appropriate chapter around during the 1st week of a given rotation. Sounds nerdy, but everyone needs to find the best way to fit reading in! :p
 
I cut off the binding of my Lawrence text. By doing that, I could stuff the pages that I needed in my jacket pocket or inside my Surgical Recall for reading during downtime. When I was done with my rotation, I punched holes in the pages and put them in a binder. I ended up getting the pimp questions and getting my reading done on those long nights on call when I was babysitting a patient in radiology.

I wish I would have been smart enough to think to do this! I just read bits of Lawrence at home and Recall on my PDA on the wards. One book that was recommended to me that I really liked was Surgical Attending Rounds. I don't think many people used it, but I found it very helpful. It's a little more meaty than Recall, but not as dense as a textbook.
 
Surgical Attending Rounds is a good overviw

Peronally I like Greenfield
 
Surgical Recall was the best for me, and I was able to answer most of my pimp questions pretty well - except of course for hernias. What is it about hernias and and amnesia, for me? Don't know about them, don't care about them.

Anywhoo, I did pretty well on the shelf with surg. recall and I also read the Lawrence book, which was ok. My favorite was Case Files, very excellent for the shelf. Plus the Pestana notes, if you can find them. I wasn't able to answer the last 11 questions but still did decent, and it was my first rotation so go figure ... :p
 
Recall is a must. I also like Lange's Current Surgical Dx and Treatment for the relevant topics
 
Surgical Recall was the best for me, and I was able to answer most of my pimp questions pretty well - except of course for hernias. What is it about hernias and and amnesia, for me? Don't know about them, don't care about them.

Anywhoo, I did pretty well on the shelf with surg. recall and I also read the Lawrence book, which was ok. My favorite was Case Files, very excellent for the shelf. Plus the Pestana notes, if you can find them. I wasn't able to answer the last 11 questions but still did decent, and it was my first rotation so go figure ... :p

i second the case files and pestana notes
 
I also like Lange's Current Surgical Dx and Treatment for the relevant topics

And I second this book too! I read through it one afternoon in the library while waiting for my pager to go off and it was terrific for filling in alot of blanks. Very readable and easy to comprehend things quickly.
 
They get mad at us if we use Surgical Recall for some reason, like it's "Surgery for Dummies" or Surgery Cliffs' notes, I don't think I ever bought it. But I am liking Surgical Attending Rounds and Case Files, I feel like I'll never get through the Lawrence in time and those two books seem to cover most stuff between the two of them. Plus they're a little more interesting since they use patient cases. just my .02
 
did anyone use first aid for surgery? i just bought it used relatively cheaply, but am not sure how good it is. thanks!
 
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