Trauma Surgery Resources

[Charlie Hustle]

I was recently approved for a trauma surgery elective, and I just wanted to see if anybody had any specific recommendations for books/apps/other resources that would be helpful while on service. Our friendly neighborhood search function was less than helpful, so I'm sorry if this has been discussed elsewhere.

Thanks!

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[Winged Scapula]

Modern trauma surgery is heavily critical care-based and non-operative. Most standard surgical texts will have chapters about the management of various traumatic injuries and critical care medicine.

If you will be doing your elective at a facility with a high percentage of penetrating trauma, in my opinion, an excellent book to pick up is "Top Knife: The art and craft of trauma surgery" by Ken Mattox. It's a very easy read, describes all the major traumatic injuries and their management.

 

[Charlie Hustle]

Modern trauma surgery is heavily critical care-based and non-operative. Most standard surgical texts will have chapters about the management of various dramatic injuries and critical care medicine.

If you will be doing your elective at a facility with a high percentage of penetrating trauma, in my opinion, an excellent book to pick up is "Top Knife: The art and craft of trauma surgery" by Ken Mattox. It's a very easy read, describes all the major traumatic injuries and their management.

Thanks for the reply.

With the emphasis on surgical critical care, would it be wise to work through some of Scott Weingart's podcasts and lectures beforehand? I have listened casually to some of his stuff during med school, and it doesn't take much time to get through one of his podcasts. Just wanted to hear some thoughts.

 

[Winged Scapula]

Thanks for the reply.

With the emphasis on surgical critical care, would it be wise to work through some of Scott Weingart's podcasts and lectures beforehand? I have listened casually to some of his stuff during med school, and it doesn't take much time to get through one of his podcasts. Just wanted to hear some thoughts.

I like Podcasts; they're great to listen to during a commute or for a few minutes before bedtime when you're too tired to read a textbook.

I'm not familiar with Dr. Weingart; it appears that he is an emergency medicine physician. Depending on the focus of his talks, you may find them useful in the trauma bay but not really for patient management in the SICI/ TICU. I usually listen to the ICU Rounds Podcasts from the guy out of Vanderbilt; I'm blanking on his name right now. Jeff something.

Other good resources are the University of Miami trauma department does some podcasts and U of Arizona puts their surgery Rounds including slides online, as do many programs.

 

[Charlie Hustle]

I like Podcasts; they're great to listen to during a commute or for a few minutes before bedtime when you're too tired to read a textbook.

I'm not familiar with Dr. Weingart; it appears that he is an emergency medicine physician. Depending on the focus of his talks, you may find them useful in the trauma bay but not really for patient management in the SICI/ TICU. I usually listen to the ICU Rounds Podcasts from the guy out of Vanderbilt; I'm blanking on his name right now. Jeff something.

Other good resources are the University of Miami trauma department does some podcasts and U of Arizona puts their surgery Rounds including slides online, as do many programs.

Great. Thanks for everything!

 

[Doctor Bob]

With the emphasis on surgical critical care, would it be wise to work through some of Scott Weingart's podcasts and lectures beforehand? I have listened casually to some of his stuff during med school, and it doesn't take much time to get through one of his podcasts. Just wanted to hear some thoughts.

As WingedScapula points out, a lot of trauma surg is non-op and ongoing ICU/critical care management. These are 2 things that are discussed in the EmCrit podcasts.
But what the podcasts don't cover is the long term longitudinal care; primarily, once the patient is stabilized what do you do with them for the next two weeks, how do you wean them from the vent, when do you need to go to the OR for washouts or closure, etc, etc. So the podcasts are good, but recognize their limitations. There aren't any easily digestible books that come to mind which cover the long term ICU management of the not-really-unstable-but-just-needs-lots-of-water-and-sunlight patient. That just comes with practice. And as a medical students nobody's going to expect you to know when a patient is ready to go for fascial closure, or downgrade to the stepdown unit.

I usually listen to the ICU Rounds Podcasts from the guy out of Vanderbilt; I'm blanking on his name right now. Jeff something.

Jeffrey Guy

 

[Winged Scapula]

As WingedScapula points out, a lot of trauma surg is non-op and ongoing ICU/critical care management. These are 2 things that are discussed in the EmCrit podcasts.
But what the podcasts don't cover is the long term longitudinal care; primarily, once the patient is stabilized what do you do with them for the next two weeks, how do you wean them from the vent, when do you need to go to the OR for washouts or closure, etc, etc. So the podcasts are good, but recognize their limitations. There aren't any easily digestible books that come to mind which cover the long term ICU management of the not-really-unstable-but-just-needs-lots-of-water-and-sunlight patient. That just comes with practice. And as a medical students nobody's going to expect you to know when a patient is ready to go for fascial closure, or downgrade to the stepdown unit.



Jeffrey Guy

That's the guy! Lol...