Alessandro Aldera, University of Cape Town

I found this book most useful for preparing for OSPEs. The large, high-resolution cadaveric photographs together with clear lables make this book ideal for revision. The summaries of the regional anatomy at the beginning of each new chapter are also helpful for revision purposes but are not sufficient to attain a thorough understanding of all the anatomical structures and their relationships. There is a "clinical correlations" section at the end of each chapter which gives the reader an idea of the clinical relevance of the section. Unfortunately there is no neuroanatomy in this text which does detract from its comprehensiveness. This book is a superb atlas and is best used as an accompaniment to a meatier anatomy text such as Gray’s Anatomy for Students.

Posted 19th Nov 2009

Tim Brock, The University of Edinburgh

I am extremely impressed with this book. With anatomy teaching time being reduced in all UK medical schools, it is now necessary to look at cadaveric photographs to gain good anatomical knowledge. Other anatomy books on the market tend to show idealised drawings that are not useful if you haven’t been exposed to many cadavers before! This book has hundreds of well labelled, LARGE (ie full page per picture!) photographs of cadavers, which I found much easier to understand and learn from. The book is well-organised throughout and is ideal for a CBL/PBL course as each chapter builds on knowledge. For example, each chapter is designated to a region of the body, and contains anatomy orientation first, followed by surface anatomy, superficial to deep dissections and then radiological imaging. The surface anatomy was particularly good as the anatomical structures were related to potential clinical presentations, and the use of ‘ghosting’ allows the reader to visualise the underlying anatomy easily. The dissections are also excellent and it is easy to make out all structures that you will need to know for spot exams/ OSCEs. This systematic approach is easy to follow and due to its content, is suitable for both junior and senior med students alike. The book is easy to learn from. It contains loads of mnemonics and colourful tables and generally, is extremely well laid out. It is one of the only anatomy books I have picked up and actually wanted to read all the way through!

Posted 1st Jul 2008