Product Description

"Essential Clinical Anatomy, Third Edition" presents the core anatomical concepts found in "Clinically Oriented Anatomy, Fifth Edition" in a concise, easy-to-read, and student-friendly format. This streamlined book is an excellent review for the larger text and an ideal primary text for health professions courses with brief coverage of anatomy. This edition features new full-color surface anatomy photographs and new diagnostic images. A new design makes the book visually appealing and easier to navigate. Accompanying the book is an Online Student Resource Center, which includes interactive clinical cases, USMLE-style review questions, and more.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #84461 in Books
• Model: 9780781762748
• Published on: 2006-03-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 691 pages

Customer Reviews

Good book for revision, but not enough detail for reference
Essential Clinical Anatomy makes no claims to be a comprehensive pure anatomy textbook. As the name suggests, it aims to provide those details relevant to clinical practise, and on the whole, succeeds quite nicely. The book is compact, and easy to use, with easy-to-follow colour illustrations throughout and concise text which covers, well, the essentials. It begins with a simple introduction, running through terminology, and the integumentary, lymphatic and nervous systems, and goes on to cover the rest of the body in a logical manner. Scattered through the book are 'common' x-rays, for example chest and cervical spine, which are useful for finding out how things are 'supposed' to look. There are also boxes in which there are useful clinical notes, such as common fracture sites and clinical techniques. This book may not be ideal as a primary anatomy textbook, but then, this was not what it was designed for. I would say that it is an excellent revision tool, perfect for brushing up on seen-before anatomy prior to an exam or tutorial. It has most of what you need to know in a 'user-friendly' package, and if it doesn't have the branch of that obscure artery to that even more obscure muscle, it's less than an inch thick, so what the hell!

Ok- but there is better
If you are buying an anatomy book, then this gives most of the relevent information, and sets it out quite nicely, also, it's not too big to carry to DR sessions ect. However, there is a bigger version, which gives more clinical relevance which in the long run, might be better value.

DO NOT buy this as your main anatomy text!!!
This was irritatingly touted by my uni (King's College London) as the core anatomy text for our first year. We were told that it would contain everything we need to know as first years; well it's that "as first years" bit that's the problem. You're going to be at medical school for a long time and so you need an anatomy textbook that you'll be using for most of that time, not one that you'll need to replace in a year.

The book is useful as a revision aid (in fact the only time I really used it was on the tube during the cram that was my 3rd term of the first year) but as a reference text it's deficient. It becomes very irritating when you finally settle down to write some anatomy notes and flick this open to find that it can't answer a lot of your questions. I wish someone had told me as a first year, but if you're looking for an anatomy textbook then go for the bigger version of this: Clinically Oriented Anatomy (it's AWESOME), or Gray's Anatomy for Students (by far the best and easiest to understand illustrations I've ever seen in an anatomy book (and that's including the full version of Gray's)).

In short, it's not a bad book but you will definitely need more information than it contains (even in your first year) so go for another book instead.