Dominic Haigh, University of Birmingham

Clinical Obstetrics and Gynaecology is a large tome which reminds us of the importance of the specialty when it states ‘Worldwide, one woman dies every minute of every day from a complication of pregnancy’.The two main sections of the book - unsurprisingly titled ‘Obstetrics’ and ‘Gynaecology’ are preceded by a section on fundamentals. This covers pelvic anatomy, embryology (with a bit of demonstrative teratology) and history and examination. It is useful to have all the history and examination of obstetrics and gynaecology together in one place, this is neglected in some texts and can lead to a lot of flicking between patients. Taking an obstetric history, like a psychiatric history, can be very different from a standard medical history. It is a skill that needs to be nurtured through experience, and it is reassuring to read through exactly what needs to be done before the first time. This makes this chapter among the most useful in the book. As an extensive amount of material is being covered, there are a multitude of contributors to the book, some contributing a sole chapter, others contributing many. The length of chapters is also variable, depending on the focus of the authors; for example, there are sixteen pages on infertility and four on premenstrual syndrome. As the blurb states, this is a perfect companion to Kumar & Clark, written in the same accessible style with a similar clinical focus.

Posted 3rd Jul 2010

Joseph Fitchett, Imperial College, London

There are so many textbooks now on obstetrics and gynaecology to choose from and with the big textbooks (like Kumar & Clark, Davidson's) not covering the topics, finding the right one is key. Colour illustrations in Clinical Obstetrics & Gynaecology are on nearly every page, which really helps with learning the content. Naturally, the clinical content is the focus and each chapter includes an introduction, aetiology, clinical presentation, examination, investigation and management (both medical and surgical). The highlight however is that this textbook outlines all the key topics in many short chapters - meaning not only is it a good reference book, it is also suitable for revision!

Posted 8th Mar 2010