Help w/ Surgery: What Books are good?

[JaSam]

Any Advice from people who have already done the surg rotation? is there a good textbook or review book or reference book etc... etc...? and Why did you like it? What do you guys recommend? Don't be shy and respond. Thanks a mil.

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[lankysudanese]

Any Advice from people who have already done the surg rotation? is there a good textbook or review book or reference book etc... etc...? and Why did you like it? What do you guys recommend? Don't be shy and respond. Thanks a mil.

If you are talking about textbooks, then Lawrence Essential of Surgery is a good book.

If you are talking about Review books, then you can consider:
1. NMS Casebook
2. Kaplan Step II CK Qbook
3. Pestana review (not a book, but still good)

If you talking about reference books, then I particularly liked:
1. Schwartz (especially the accompanying resident review qbook)
2. Sabiston (a little longer of a read, but excellent for knowing topics inside out)

Good Luck

 

[JaSam]

If you are talking about textbooks, then Lawrence Essential of Surgery is a good book.

If you are talking about Review books, then you can consider:
1. NMS Casebook
2. Kaplan Step II CK Qbook
3. Pestana review (not a book, but still good)

If you talking about reference books, then I particularly liked:
1. Schwartz (especially the accompanying resident review qbook)
2. Sabiston (a little longer of a read, but excellent for knowing topics inside out)

Good Luck

Thank you much appreciated.

What about Surgical REcall or Casefiles for Surgery? Heard anything about these two? Good or no?

 

[Blade28]

Any Advice from people who have already done the surg rotation? is there a good textbook or review book or reference book etc... etc...? and Why did you like it? What do you guys recommend? Don't be shy and respond. Thanks a mil.

From the Clinical Rotations stickies:

**Links to threads on books for MS3 & rotations**
**Links to threads about shelf exams**

 

[MrBurns10]

The primary text from which I used to study was Mont Reid Surgical Handbook. It presented a lot of info concisely, and I was a fan.

 

[lankysudanese]

Thank you much appreciated.

What about Surgical REcall or Casefiles for Surgery? Heard anything about these two? Good or no?

Surgical Recall is good for looking up info during rounds and just prior to going to the OR cases - i.e. to prepare for being pimped. But as far as for general knowledge and preparation for the shelf, there are better books out there.

CaseFiles is a good resource, especially for getting a handle of all the major topics in the first couple of weeks.

Good Luck

 

[PenguinHead]

Thank you much appreciated.

What about Surgical REcall or Casefiles for Surgery? Heard anything about these two? Good or no?

I second Lawrence Essentials. Surgery Recall has also been awesome for pimping and the in house quizzes we have. I carry Recall all the time to read in my down time.

 

[Buckeye(OH)]

I read Essentials prior to the shelf. I still think that was the hardest ****ing shelf of all.

 

[vtucci]

Before cases in the OR- surg recall

Review for the shelf-
1. USMLEWORLD- do the surg section and fluid/electrolytes on medicine if you have not had medicine yet.
2. Case Files surg
3. Lawrence Essentials or NMS Surgery (not both).
4. Appleton and lange had decent questions but they are not in shelf format. 5. Surgical Secrets is also useful.
6. Pestana review- excellent for the night/morning of the shelf.

 

[TonyDaTigrUprct]

Surgery was my first rotation, so I didn't have medicine first and didn't think I needed to (contrary to what everyone else seems to be saying).
B/c it's surgery, you spend long hours at the hospital and are too tired at night to study in huge blocks, especially long textbooks. So I only read review books for 2 hours at a time, and more as the exam approached (2-3 weeks out). I found that the shelf questions had two types of questions 1) what is the next step in management, and 2) what is this disease? These are the sources I used and I feel like I was well prepared:
1) NMS Casebook (read this 3x through, at first reading it was way over my head, but repeated readings make it easier to digest)
2) Pestana Review (read this 3x)
3) USMLEWorld questions (~190 questions, do them twice)
4) Boards and Wards - sections on Surgery and Internal Medicine (just read through this once 2 days before the test, not sure how much it helped, but it definitely didn't hurt either)
I didn't use Surg Recall, Case Files, Pretest, or A&L so I can't comment on them.

Stick to these 3 sources and you will do well. Also, do the questions in the back first, and time is definitely a factor. Keep a good pace but don't blow through the test.

 

[jonsir]

I know a lot of people recommend the NMS Casebook. That's supposed to be really good.