Must Have Books??

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mickey1t

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Im starting my CA-1 this July and wanted to get a head start on reading during my free time. I was curious as to which text you guys would recommened.

I good friend suggested Lange's Clinical Anes by Morgan and Mikhail along with Stoelting's Anesthesia and Co-Existing Disease.

What do you guys think? Any suggestions?

Thanks
 
As I read your post, those are the two books that are up late with me on the couch tonight...
 
mickey1t said:
Im starting my CA-1 this July and wanted to get a head start on reading during my free time. I was curious as to which text you guys would recommened.

I good friend suggested Lange's Clinical Anes by Morgan and Mikhail along with Stoelting's Anesthesia and Co-Existing Disease.

What do you guys think? Any suggestions?

Thanks
Click to expand...

As of right now, you must have either the Morgan and Mikhail book or Baby Miller.

LATER, you must have Barash or Miller, Hall question book and either Faust or Big Blue.
 
Ask your PD, or other residents at your program, what books they will buy for you when you start. Obviously, if your program gives you Baby Miller, then don't get it now. If you really want to read something during internship to hit the ground running, pick either Baby Miller or Morgan and Mikhail. Whichever one you choose, read the first several chapters (all of the pharmacology chapters, anesthetic delivery systems, airway management), and you should start off with a good anesthesia knowledge base. Both of those should be read before the end of CA1 year, and you can supplement with other books that you actually like as needed (I use Jaffe and Yao a good bit, and regularly do questions from Hall).
 
Advice from a CA1 who did very well on AKT1 and AKT6. Both >90%itle. (my AKT0 was a <20%ile so I knew nothing about anesthesia going into CA1 year)...

Get an Ipad
Get CHMate application (6.99)
Get Gasworks app too (free). Its a quick reference to drug dosing.

Get latest edition of Big Miller, Barash, Morgan & Mikhail, co-existing disease, anesthesiologist's manual of surgical procedures ebooks. Get them legally of course 😉. Please don't ask me where to get illegal free versions. If you want them google them. All should be CHM files and sync with your ipad. Work super fast on the ipad and bookmarked by chapters. You can read them intraop for boring long Davinci's. Also can read them on your laptop at home.

Buy hard copies of Hall and M&M.

Read through M&M first couple of months supplemented with select chapters from hall (resp phys, pharm, general anesthesia, ect). Skip M&M cardiac anesthesia/neuro anesthesia/ect chapters NOT the physiology chapters. M&M you will realize is the CRNA's bible however it should be introductory book into the bigger books. It just tells you what to do, but does not explain why you are doing it. I loved barash at first but now love Miller. Use co-existing disease to read in advice about patients that have that particular disease. It will stick in your memory that way. Keep the big reading sessions for the weekend (for me Sunday), and on weekdays keep it very light, read mostly about your cases in anesthesiologists manual of surgical procedures. Couple nights before the AKT brush up with only M&M and hall for high yield facts. Thats all you need and you'll do very well on your tests. Plus you will do very well clinically as you do cases because you'll know WHY you're doing what you are doing. Importantly, don't argue with your attending if you disagree with what they do because what you read, more importantly ask them why they are doing it and you'll pick up subtle skills that books will never teach.

I have never opened up baby miller, its too broad and more for med students. Hope that helps.
 
I disagree about Baby Miller, that book is ITE gold (99th %tile last year). I read it as an MS4, again as a CA-1, and revisiting it currently, it is a great review book. The trick is to realize that almost every sentence could be turned into a question, and certainly every picture.

If I were to start residency over, my initial reading plan would be

Baby Miller first month
Stoelting second month
Fleisher's Evidence-Based Practice of Anesthesiology third month
Then dive into your authoritative big textbook of choice - I chose Miller
Break up the monotony with Yao&Artusio

I think it is very worthwhile to shoot for a high ITE score as a CA-1; after I got my score I noticed a difference in the way many attendings worked with me. My CA-2 ITE hasn't even rolled around and I've already been offered a local pain fellowship spot (albeit nothing in writing for a couple more months), so the first ITE can make a big difference.

For ITE-specific studying, the foundation is the reading you did early on, but Big Blue is a good review (I prefer it over Faust), and questions are key (Hall has good explanations; the old ITE questions from the 90's on the ASA site are more representative of the real thing if you ignore the questions about enflurane).

And read about your cases every day, of course. Read about all regional techniques in Hadzic the night before you do them for the first time.

Personally, I don't like something about how M&M is written, although some chapters are very good (pulmonary physiology is one).
 
For me, I read M&M cover to cover 2 or 3 times. Then stepped up to Barash and would use Miller for more in depth on certain topics. Also Faust is a very good review. I stuck with this and did well on all ITEs and boards. Just my 2 pennies.
 
I like M and M, read it as student, intern and half of CA-1 when I gave it up for barash, which i personally didn't like. now i read longnecker, which i like alot and big blue, which is great for crunch time and the hall and barash question books. i actually don't like the anes and co-existing dse book, its too simple.... they other day i have a pt w a weird mitochondrial dse and i was expecting a detailed account of complex II vs IV dfcy and the anesthestic implications, etc etc etc and it had practically no info... kinda annoying.
 
simply reading each night about your cases will give you an excellent foundation. ask yourself "what are the anesthetic implications of htn/chf/hypothyroid/aortic stenosis" etc. try to come up with a 20 second spiel if someone asked you how a particular disease would affect your anesthetic plan. i amassed a very nice library of review articles with this approach. I also took notes the 1st time i read these articles which made for a quick review later on. this approach will also help you immensely with oral boards.

i used big blue for those esoteric questions, or at least the commonly asked ones. the ones in the box are money. i had>90th percentile for every ite. PDs love this.

baby miller is deceptively straightforward. there's no fluff. you will appreciate it when you become more senior.

m&m is a superficial review. it really is on a crna/ca-1 level. you won't find an in depth treatment of any topic in this book. but it's acceptable maybe for ca-1s.

the michael ho book imo is outstanding. very detailed but clinically relevant.
 
As has been said, M&M or Baby M are good starter books to read cover to cover. I agree that reading the pharm and equipment chapters is probably all you need to get off to a good start. Those books are also enough to pass your boards, despite what your PD might say, but you're studying to be the best you can be not just to get all the board questions right, right? I took Secrets in the OR with me for the first few months of CA1. The question and answer format makes for better interrupted reading than a chapter-based book. Later, I read Hall in the OR for the same reason. Hall requires a better knowledge base, so secrets is better early on.
 
Thanks everyone for your thoughts! I know RxBoy mentioned a couple apps he likes for the iPad. Any other suggestions? Also, Im a big Apple PodCast listener, any good feed out there??
 
mickey1t said:
Thanks everyone for your thoughts! I know RxBoy mentioned a couple apps he likes for the iPad. Any other suggestions? Also, Im a big Apple PodCast listener, any good feed out there??
Click to expand...

I just put the kindle app on my phone and love it. Downloaded a few books on it (anesthesia and non-anesthesia) and read it a few minutes here and there.
 
Last edited:
itwasalladream said:
anyone use a kindle or nook for OR studying? I don't really want to splurge on an ipad.
Click to expand...

Had a nook (1st gen), sold it. Reading pdfs that are not formatted for that screen size is difficult.

Touch screen makes navigating 10x easier. Color would be awesome.

Don't have an ipad, but will look into it when ipad 2 is introduced.
 
hmm, so anyone thinking of buying an ipad 2?

I already have a macbook air, iphone 4, and my desktop computer. Do i really need another computing device in my life?

Would be helpful in the wards, if I could get MIMS australia for free over here.
 
might be a little cumbersome on the wards and when things get hectic, it'll be just one more thing to keep track of. Its a little big to stick in ur coat pocket, so ur gonna have to be very careful where u put it down. One of my friends had his stolen this past year.
 
mickey1t said:
might be a little cumbersome on the wards and when things get hectic, it'll be just one more thing to keep track of. Its a little big to stick in ur coat pocket, so ur gonna have to be very careful where u put it down. One of my friends had his stolen this past year.
Click to expand...
The 3G ones I thought had the security system that can track down the iPad once it goes on the net (pretty useless to steal one if you aren't going to use it, I think.)

I go with the iPod Touch for right now. I had it engraved with my name to identify it. It also reads pdf files, albeit in a smaller format. Something to read up close while you are getting that strategic rest time in bed on call. I like the feel of books, so I would probably use the real deal at home, and use the pdfs on the touch to read when there is a lull or down time. Also, the 'Touch is in a hip case that helps keep it under positive control.
 
Ronin2258 said:
The 3G ones I thought had the security system that can track down the iPad once it goes on the net (pretty useless to steal one if you aren't going to use it, I think.)

I go with the iPod Touch for right now. I had it engraved with my name to identify it. It also reads pdf files, albeit in a smaller format. Something to read up close while you are getting that strategic rest time in bed on call. I like the feel of books, so I would probably use the real deal at home, and use the pdfs on the touch to read when there is a lull or down time. Also, the 'Touch is in a hip case that helps keep it under positive control.
Click to expand...

Except when it lights up in China, you know your Ipad got stolen and put up on eBay or something...

I wouldn't take a personal Ipad into a hospital
 
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