Just how much anatomy, is needed for MD/DO school anatomy?

[osteohopeful09]

stupid question, I know. I'm, sure the answer is "all of it!", but I just wanted someone who knew to answer me.

For gross anatomy, will each student be required to, say, memorize every single bone of the face/skull, all the muscles of the face, and major venous system landmarks of the face.

I was looking at an anatomy text, and was pretty amazed with how many pages were devoted to the face/skull. My undergrad anatomy class never went into *that* much detail...

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[thesauce]

For gross anatomy, will each student be required to, say, memorize every single bone of the face/skull, all the muscles of the face, and major venous system landmarks of the face.

Yes to the first 2. I'm not sure what you mean by "landmarks," but you need to know venous return.

The most important things to learn for H&N are the cranial nerves and what foramens they leave through in the skull.

Good luck!

 

[osteohopeful09]

awesome! Time to start making copies of blank pics of skulls and H&N muscles, and start memorizing!

 

[ButImLETired]

awesome! Time to start making copies of blank pics of skulls and H&N muscles, and start memorizing!

The short answer to your question is indeed yes, all of it.

However I wouldn't bother trying to memorize pictures yet. For one thing, you generally don't do head and neck until way later in the semester, so you'll probably forget everything by then (most schools do it at the end because it's arguably the hardest system to learn). Also, your professors will likely emphasize the stuff they think is most important when school starts, so having every detail memorized equally well is not high-yield and will probably end up getting confusing. And finally, the real challenge of anatomy isn't just knowing what things are called when you look at a picture. You have to understand the course of the arteries, veins, nerves and lymphatics. Where do they come from? Where are they going? What are their major branches and what do those do? What happens when you lose one of those branches? How would that patient present? That's not stuff you're gonna get from a picture, but it's far more important than being able to recognize what the platysma is or looking at the skull and naming the jugular foramen. What comes out of the jugular foramen? Why does that matter? How can that be affected when there is a swelling in the brain? Etc etc etc. Wait until med school, and you'll actually find out what you need to know.

 

[armybound]

We had an entire block on just the head & neck. It's the most structure-dense cubic foot in the body, so of course it will be more intimidating than the back or the legs.

I don't think we learn "everything" in the entire body in gross anatomy. As far as the head goes, yes, we learn all of the foramena, muscles, bones, etc.

 

[justdoit31]

Yes to all of it- don't start now just do it when you get there...

Also, you will need to know muscle actions, what nerve innervates the muscle, and what artery provides its blood supply.