Surviving Surgery if your anatomy sucks

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I start surgery on Monday and I really don't remember my anatomy all that well (I've never been that great at retaining it). Any suggestions on what to do to avoid looking like a total ***** when I get pimped on anatomy? I thought I'd try to read up on the anatomy relevent to any surgeries before I scrub in, but does anyone have a suggestion for what book to use? I have Netter's but I obviously can't lug it around with me and it besides, it's got way more detail than I could possibly absorb in a short period.

Any other tips for surgery survival?
 
surebreC said:
Any suggestions on what to do to avoid looking like a total ***** when I get pimped on anatomy? I thought I'd try to read up on the anatomy relevent to any surgeries before I scrub in, but does anyone have a suggestion for what book to use? I have Netter's but I obviously can't lug it around with me and it besides, it's got way more detail than I could possibly absorb in a short period.
Click to expand...

Netter's is not that helpful for preparing for surgery, in my opinion.

Schwartz usually has a section in each chapter on the "surgical" anatomy of each region of the body. That was much, much more helpful, in my opinion. They also mention important anatomical variants - which are a frequent source of pimp questions. Photocopy the pages and carry them around.
 
Our library had several atlases with intraoperative photos from surgeries that I thought were really helpful for refreshing my memory on anatomy. I was also surprised at how much I remembered when I looked at the pictures/diagrams/photos again--you might surprise yourself. If you're not interested in surgery/anatomy, you can probably also volunteer to follow patients on the floor and have less OR time, and of course, you can try to find cases with attendings who don't pimp as much. Good luck!
 
Surgical anatomy and Gross Anatomy are two different entities. When you are reading about a particular case or procedure in your surgical rotation text, you will be given the relevant anatomy. This is the anatomy that you need to know for your surgery clerkship. Since you have heard the terms previously in GA, surgical anatomy will be a quick study for you no matter what grade you received in GA.
 
smq123 said:
Netter's is not that helpful for preparing for surgery, in my opinion.

Schwartz usually has a section in each chapter on the "surgical" anatomy of each region of the body. That was much, much more helpful, in my opinion. They also mention important anatomical variants - which are a frequent source of pimp questions. Photocopy the pages and carry them around.
Click to expand...

Schwartz was really good for that; I also used Netter's a lot, and sometimes I'd take it to school in my backpack.
 
I have to admit that when I was on my surgery rotation everything looked basically the same to me and I had a horrible time trying to get orientated to exactly what I was supposed to be looking at. I could never follow what the surgeons were doing. Reading up on the anatomy really didn't help me much. Still, I managed to get a few pimp questions right just with educated guessing. It's a good thing I am not going into surgery!!!!! Sorry that doesn't answer your question, just comiserating!
 
A book suggestion: Surgical Recall by L. Blackbourne.
Rather a lifesaver. It has relevant anatomy and pimp questions. Seriously a lifesaver. And small enough to carry around everywhere.

Good luck🙂

P.S. Also, I literally had Netter's in the locker room and would (sometimes frantically) look stuff up in there between cases. So don't disregard it too quickly . . . and I agree with previous posters that you might be surprised at how much you actually do remember.
 
If you don't know your anatomy, make sure you know your music. I survived surgery by knowing music. After you fail to identify a couple of structures, they then tend to ask you about the music that's playing in the background. If you get that right, this may be followed up with some "difficult" trivia like "Name the 4 Beatles". If you get this right, they then tend to leave you alone. :laugh:
 
Don't worry...I SUCKED at anatomy in first year and still managed to rock the surgery rotation. It can be done.

I recommend Netter's anatomy flash cards. They are color images of most of the atlas plates, but each has fewer things per slide than the book. I always thought it was a nightmare to study from the atlas because each page has like 300 things labeled. The cards are more focused, and the back has important facts related to the anatomy on the front of the card. Before each case I would review the relevant anatomy beforehand and keep the appropriate cards for the anatomy in my coat pocket so I could reference them quickly as much as I could on the down time. You won't generally be asked things about anatomy unrelated to the case at hand so reviewing is much easier. For example, if you are attending a thyroidectomy, you will not be asked questions about the small bowel.

Overall I dreaded the rotation before and after finishing it found it to be very busy and intense but lots of fun and I learned tons. Good luck!

PS: I second the recommendation for surgical recall. It had lots of useful questions and facts for quick review. 5 of the contributing authors are trauma surgeons at UM/jackson and it was great because almost everything they expected us to know about anatomy in trauma was in that book. :luck:
 
bjackrian said:
Our library had several atlases with intraoperative photos from surgeries that I thought were really helpful for refreshing my memory on anatomy. I was also surprised at how much I remembered when I looked at the pictures/diagrams/photos again--you might surprise yourself. If you're not interested in surgery/anatomy, you can probably also volunteer to follow patients on the floor and have less OR time, and of course, you can try to find cases with attendings who don't pimp as much. Good luck!
Click to expand...

This is the best idea of all. That is, unless you enjoy weird mind games, dodging thrown scalpels, and getting yelled at by scrub nurses for no reason whatsoever. Seriously, I think actually being in the OR was the least educational part of my surgery rotation, being someone not interested in surgery. I really regretted not having more floor time, although it's hard to tell a surgery attending you'd rather not go to the OR so you can stay on the floor...I'm definitely encountering that on my current rotation (peds surgery).

I'd agree with the above advice, though...I thought actual surgery texts, like Schwartz or Sabiston were way more helpful than Netters or other student texts as far as learning about the procedures.
 
villa said:
A book suggestion: Surgical Recall by L. Blackbourne.
Rather a lifesaver. It has relevant anatomy and pimp questions. Seriously a lifesaver. And small enough to carry around everywhere.

Good luck🙂
Click to expand...
I completely agree. Surgical Recall got me through surgery. That book is a lifesaver!
 
Surgical Recall has a LOT of great text because a lot of pimp questions are on areas that might not have been discussed in anatomy (or they want the eponym so they can then pimp you about the person who named it)

My biggest help with surgical anatomy is not thinking "Wow, what the hell is that" but thinking space related wise. As in, "Okay, they just flipped up the stomach, what's behind it?"
 
Thanks for the replies. I've been using Surgical Recall and supplementing it with Netters if I really need to. So far I haven't had any trouble with the anatomy or surgery. Surgical Recall is great for anticipating pimp questions. I've been reading it whenever I have down time and haven't really been stumped at all so far (though I have a really awesome attending who is more into teaching than pimping).
 
ANyone recommend "Esentials of General Surgery" and/or "Essentials of Surgical sub-specialties", or are these books too overkill? (For the surgery rotation of course)
 
HunterGatherer said:
wondering about this also. Are these similar to the Schwartz text?
Click to expand...

Lawrence's books are written to a med student/intern level; I used them during the clerkship and found them very helpful (along with Case Files). Schwartz is probably a bit much for the surgery clerkship.

Anka
 
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