how much embryology do we need as practising doctors?

[adrianus]

Hello,

My school is deliberately skipping Embrology all together since it is very low yield for USMLE. But I wonder if knowledge of Embryology is beneficial or helpful in our practice as doctors? How much do we have to know? If the knowledge is crucial I'd probably read up on Embryology on my own during school breaks.

Thank you!

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[Law2Doc]

Hello,

My school is deliberately skipping Embrology all together since it is very low yield for USMLE. But I wonder if knowledge of Embryology is beneficial or helpful in our practice as doctors? How much do we have to know? If the knowledge is crucial I'd probably read up on Embryology on my own during school breaks.

Thank you!

There are often a couple of questions on Step 1 in embryology. I'm not sure how beneficial it is in practice in the majority of specialties, but would suggest that physicians need to be generalists first and specialists second, you you really ought to have that background as a physician. If you go into OB, Peds, or anything surgical dealing with congenital defects you might want to know a little. Sit down and read the High Yield embryology (or another similar board prep book) during one of your breaks and you will be fine for the boards.

 

[digitalising]

Having an understanding of embryology lends insight into a number of disorders, making them easier to understand, such as Kallman's syndrome, pheochromocytoma, craniopharyngioma, etc. If you understand where things come from, then it's easier to make sense of how they go wrong and how they'll behave.

That being said, in my humble opinion as a 1.5 year, embryo's probably not going to be directly impacting your everyday career as a doc, unless you're a pediatrician or obstetrician.

 

[Metfan2987]

Hello,

My school is deliberately skipping Embrology all together since it is very low yield for USMLE. But I wonder if knowledge of Embryology is beneficial or helpful in our practice as doctors? How much do we have to know? If the knowledge is crucial I'd probably read up on Embryology on my own during school breaks.

Thank you!

I would say that unless you're in peds or are in OB/GYN, embryology isn't important to your career at all, but if you're not in neuro neither is the pathways of the cranial nerves, and if you're not in ortho neither is the anatomy of the knee ligaments.

 

[Dral]

I would say that unless you're in peds or are in OB/GYN, embryology isn't important to your career at all, but if you're not in neuro neither is the pathways of the cranial nerves, and if you're not in ortho neither is the anatomy of the knee ligaments.

Excellent point. I think embryology is difficult to grasp, so people don't like to learn it any more than other people like to teach it. It's a shame really. It's a very cool topic once you get a working grasp of it.

 

[Depakote]

The embryo for step I doesn't get too intense, but it does pop up here and there in clinic. OB and Peds definitely handle a number of congenital defects which you'd want to be able to understand the etiology of.

 

[Ruination]

In addition to OB and Peds, it can be useful in Pathology as well.

 

[WellWornLad]

Cardiology as well, to understand many congenital heart defects it really helps to know how the heart and major vessels emerged.

 

[RiceOwl04]

You don't 'need' to know embryology for anything. That said, as mentioned above, some people find some rudimentary facts about embryology helpful in understanding certain disease processes. Or you could just accept those processes at face value. Whatever works for you.

 

[Climberak]

How well you should know it depends on what you want to go into. Personally, I would rather have somewhat of a working knowledge in embryology than not, especially if I ever have to explain to a parent why their child has a certain disorder. Although I may never be directly involved with the treatment/ongoing care of a disease with an embryologic origin, I may still encounter affected patients when they seek other forms of care.

Although it's a little bit late for you, I found embryology to be helpful for anatomy. For instance, knowing the derivatives of the foregut, midgut, and hindgut helps to keep things organized when trying to figure out their blood supply and innervation in the adult.

 

[phospho]

This thread caught my attention while I was looking for something else.

What kind of school would literally skip a course? I can understand how some schools might not focus much on embryo, but skip it? Am I missing something here? Do other people's schools simply skip it also?

 

[turkeyjerky]

our school basically omits it. it's all online and passing is based on a 20 question open book quiz. i don't feel like i missed out on much

 

[phospho]

our school basically omits it. it's all online and passing is based on a 20 question open book quiz. i don't feel like i missed out on much

i'm so jealous... my school overkilled embryo (was worth ~ 20% of anatomy), and now I'm starting to get the impression that that agony wasn't really worth much...

 

[TheRadiologist]

Embryology is very helpful in radiology. Many congenital anomalies can be diagnosed on imaging studies, and embryology does help you make sense of the anomalies.
Also, many normal anatomic variants have an embryological basis.

 

[NTF]

I can't speak to clinical relevance, but I found the embryology interwoven into gross pretty helpful. Congenital abnormalites and certain aspects of anatomy just make much more sense if you know the developmental sequence.

 

[MilkmanAl]

All the difficult, complex stuff in embryo strikes me as almost completely worthless for clinicians. As long as you have a handle on stuff like sex differentiation, basic heart defects, neural tube anomalies, Potter's, etc., you should probably be good to go. That's obviously an oversimplification, so suffice it to say that all the things that made embryo suck horribly can safely be forgotten.