Know about Surgery Book

This is THE surgery textbook for small animal veterinarians.
Great descriptions and illustrations. A true “must-have” for those interested in surgery.
My only critic is that they should decide and split it in two so those of us not into orthopedics or neurosurgery wouldn’t have to buy that part. I think this would make for a great soft tissue surgery book and, probably, much more affordable (had to buy it through amazon.com because this book is tremendously expensive in Europe).

I really do love this book. The advice is practical, clear, applicable to how I live since my gastric by-pass surgery. The recipes are tasty and easily tolerable and aren’t too complicated for a — shall we say — challenged cook! It’s probably my lug-around-with-me book of choice amongst the ones I’ve read since my surgery because of its usefulness.

Wherever I go when I have this book it’s title attracts attention! The book has everything from is this surgery right for you? To recipies and even has a excerpt frm Al Roker. If you are having surgery or even thinking about having it get this book!

I am so happy that I read the reviews before I bought this book. I am anticpating surgery by summer 07. This is my WLS Bible. You will NOT be dissapointed getting this fablous book.

It explains the surgery, what to expect, the day before surgery, what happens in the hospital etc….

I love this book and it will be with me untill I have my surgery,good luck to those who want to or are contiplating to have surgery.

As a 4th year osteopathic medical student, i used the book to review for the shelf while i did my 4th year surgery rotation in ophthalmology. i don’t really enjoy surgery, and i’m planning on doing a family practice residency, and ophthalmology seemed like one of the more useful choices for a surgery clerkship. i used case files because i wanted a relatively inexpensive review book that i would not have to read for more than one hour a day. i really liked the format of this book, because it is written in a style similar to how i learn. unfortunately, the shelf is a stupid exam and the question stems of the surgery shelf provide mostly useless information that take too much time to read. i would recommend this book in combination with submitting a complaint to your medical school about the uselessness of shelf exams, because they don’t really improve your education at all.

I am a fourth year medical student going into general surgery and this is the only surgical textbook that I have read in significantly. I chose this book because it got the best rating in First Aid for the Wards. I have completed all but the last 100 pages of this 1870 page text. It begins with a 500 page, 14 chapter section entitled “Part I, Basic Considerations” that is mostly surgical basic sciences. This material is mostly well-covered. The clinical application is not always clear but that is not the intention of these chapters as far as I can tell. Chapters on SIRS, infection, wound healing, and cell/molecular considerations stood out. In “Part II, Specific Considerations” there are chapters arranged by organ systems that cover the various areas of general surgery, followed by individual chapters on surgical subspecialties such as urology and ortho. These chapters vary somewhat in style. The congenital heart disease chapter was brief and a bit hard to follow partially due to insufficient discussion of embryology and fetal circulation. The acquired heart disease chapter was too brief in my opinion. The esophagus and vascular system chapters very lengthy and thorough. The other chapters are adequate. The gyn chapter and neurosurg chapters in the subspecialty areas are actually pretty good and have some useful info for general surgeons. The chapters generally speaking are less oriented towards descriptions of the surgery performed. They tend to have a brief discussion of normal anatomy and physiology, followed by in depth discussion of diagnosis including various tests and imaging studies, followed by descriptions of benign diseases and their medical and surgical management, followed by malignant diseases of that organ and their management. The chapter on colon and rectum is an exception since it discusses the various resections separately from the disease entities. The gyn section is heavy on descriptions of surgeries.

Since I cannot compare this text to others in the field, I am not sure how to rate it. The chapters have some variation in style. The discussion of diagnosis and management including diagnostic testing and imaging is very thorough. The descriptions of the actual surgeries is usually somewhat brief and not always complete. The illustrations of normal anatomy and of surgeries could be better. However, that may be more of a job for a surgical atlas, which is next on my list of things to read. The heart chapters (congenital and acquired) could be extended and improved. Otherwise, this is a pretty decent textbook that is mostly fairly readable.

You don’t have to be a doctor to get a kick out of this book. Peter Lawrence isn’t a bad writer at all, and his colleagues who do different articles with him and help making up the questions and answers (many of them multiple choice, including some surprising zingers to see if you’re awake) are also fairly competent at writing and know how to make a dry subject alive.

HRecently, when I was in the hospital and my doctors were trying to figure out what kind of procedure I should be having (to correct a leaky heart), a friend brought me this book to read while I tried to make the leaden hours go by quicker. Its attractive cover and easy-to-follow medical style convinced him that the more I knew about what might be happening to me, the better my mind would be able to cushion the shocks. You know what? My fingers quickly found themselves wrapped around the book’s four corners and the hands of the clock fairly sped by as I acquainted myself with all sorts of interesting operations, from vacsular to gastric and even into plastic surgery, which by the way isn’t as simple and brainless as you would think! I’m impressed by how difficult this vanity procedure is. However, surgery isn’t child’s play and the newbie to medical terms will probably get bogged down just trying to figure out what part of the body Dr. L is talking about from page to page. It will be a long time before I feel confident enough to pursue the next volume in this series, ESSENTIALS OF SURGICAL SPECIALTIES.

It all turned out well, and with this book on my shelf when visitors come by they sometimes ask if at one time when I was young I trained as a surgeon, only to wash out. The book’s cover painting is of course by Thomas Eakins, it is his famous painting of THE GROSS CLINIC, painted at a time when surgery was undergoing rapid transformation, at a time right on the cusp of change. Of course you can see that none of the surgeons working on the poor patient are wearing scrubs nor any kind of hygienic clothes. They are all in street clothes and as you can tell, germs were still a vague concept to the Philadelphia surgeons of the day!

In your library, this volume should be an essential! Even if you have no interest in medicine, either personal or professional.