Surgery Rotation

[outforblood]

I'm just now starting my surgery rotation, and I was wondering
what texts people recommend. I've heard the raves about surgical recall, but it doesn't seem like much of a review text.
I've heard somethings about NMS surg, BRS surg, BluePrints, as well as Essentials of Surgery by Lawrence, and "Principles of Surgery" by Schwartz. Does anybody have any special preferences for a book that is informative and managable during an 8 week rotation?

Thanks

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[Stinky T]

I think you should consider getting "The Mount Reid Surgical Handbook". If you aren't going into surgery, I think Schwartz (if it's the big fat yellow textbook I'm thinking of) would be a waste of money. "Surgical Recall" is a good book for medical students and does serve its purpose, but it really isn't enough by itself. I used "The Mount Reid Surgical Handbook" during my surgery rotations as an Intern as well. That being said, I did meet quite a few medical students who used "Surgical Recall" exclusively and supplemented that with some surgery texts in the library as needed and they did fine on the rotation.

 

[Ludy]

I liked Lawrence and was able to finish it easily in my 6-week rotation. It has lots of practice questions at the end of each chapter with good explanations, and the text is easy to read. The Lawrence surgical subspecialities book is good too, if you have to do any of those rotations. I got both of them online (used) for $23 and $25, so I thought it was worth the money. Recall is much easier to read after you've already read the Lawrence chapter. Otherwise, it would be too disjointed and hard to follow, in my opinion.

 

[southerndoc]

Essentials of Surgery by Lawrence is an excellent book, but probably more than what is needed for the shelf exam.

Blueprints Surgery is a to-the-point book that should NOT be used as a primary text. Use this only if you have great lectures and look up the major diseases in another surgical text.

Lange's surgery book (forget the name of it) is also an excellent book, but it's lengthy (1200 pages or so).

 

[ortho2003]

I used recall as a pocket book to find pimp questions. It was helpful for the OR, but not the shelf. I used BRS for the shelf, which was excellent. I scored in the 90's on my shelf for surgery.

 

[dA pilot]

I also thought Essentials of Surgery was a great book for the surgery shelf, I can even remember that surgical recall recommended reading like 10 or so pages in the lawrence book a day during your clerkship and you should finish it. My clerkship was 8 weeks long, so u may have to read more.

 

[snaggletooth]

I'm currently using lawrence for my sx rotation, but it doesn't have any ortho, optho, ENT, uro, neuro, cardio. What did people use to study these subjects and how big a part of the shelf are they? Thanks.

 

[southerndoc]

Originally posted by snaggletooth
I'm currently using lawrence for my sx rotation, but it doesn't have any ortho, optho, ENT, uro, neuro, cardio. What did people use to study these subjects and how big a part of the shelf are they? Thanks.

There's actually another book by Lawrence that goes into the surgical specialties.

Our departmental exam had a lot of specialty questions on it, but from my memory of the surgery shelf, it was primarily general with a lot of medicine questions on it.

 

[Fah-Q]

Thanks for the replies everyone. Does anyone have an opinion on Surgery Pre-Test? I am a huge fan of the Pre-Test series because I study best doing questions, but I have never heard much about the Surgery Pre-Test. Also, I am interested in reading a surgery book that has a good amount of pictures. Any help would be appreciated.