Rob McEvoy, University College Cork

Gray’s Anatomy for Students is the recommended textbook for learning Gross Anatomy at my Medical School. When I bought it my first year I was at first quite intimidated by its size; it weighs in at over 1,000 pages. However, the book is well laid out into eight sections, making it much easier to digest and find what you are looking for. The first section deals with the human body in general, including some systematic anatomy; this section is followed by sections on the back, thorax, abdomen, pelvis and perineum, lower limb, upper limb and the head and neck. At the start of each section there is a ‘Conceptual Overview’ which sets the scene, before focusing in on the regional anatomy in that area. There are hundreds of excellent colour diagrams in these sections, making it easier to learn the anatomical features being discussed in the accompanying text. Sub-sections with photographs of Surface Anatomy are particularly useful, since, as doctors, it is these landmarks which we will have to identify on our patients. Each section finishes off with a number of Clinical Cases – perfect for when you want a break from learning anatomy and want to day-dream about how you’re going to put it all to use one day! For me, a major bonus of this book is the additional content available on the studentconsult.com website. Thanks to StudentConsult there is no need to carry this heavy book around the university all day, all you need is a PC, laptop or iPad with Internet access and the entire book is at your fingertips. Once you register the book, you can search the full text online in milliseconds. All of the images from the book are also accessible and can be downloaded; I printed out many of these and used them to supplement my lecture notes. Registering the book gives you access to Self-Assessment questions, which really test your understanding of the material.

Posted 4th Oct 2011

Saad Fyyaz, The University of Nottingham

To learn anatomy there is no better tool out there than Grays Anatomy for Students. It’s greatest strength, as emphasised by anyone and everyone are the quality of the illustrations. It is truly unmatched in this regard by any other book - the schematics really allow you to visualise the structures before seeing them in reality (you may need to purchase an Atlas as a supplement to assist in this regard – I personally use the fantastic “Color Atlas of Anatomy by Rohen, Rokochi and Drecoll”). I found the text to be of an appropriate detail though occasionally overburdening in terms of volume of reading. The text highlighted in green represents information of clinical relevance which focuses and contextualises your learning and makes a change from having to read straight anatomy! Whilst it may be daunting to see the size of the textbook – Moore & Agur Essential Clinical Anatomy seems half the size for what is essentially the same information, I would go for Grays as it presents information in a more readable format. This point can’t be emphasised enough till you’ve used something else to really appreciate just how great the focussed region by region learning style of Grays really is. Occasionally it can be a little frustrating but it’s a trade off as opposed to having information about lots of different structures thrown into a paragraph e.g. about the thorax which one cannot fully understand till they’ve read the chapter fully. You’ll usually find the surface anatomy is sufficient though I often tended to use another text out of habit than anything else. All in all, this is a truly fantastic book that you can’t really go wrong with. The different textbooks have different styles so it’s a case of finding what suits you, but I would imagine this suits most!

Posted 8th May 2011

Alessandro Aldera, University of Cape Town

Gray's Anatomy for Students is a must read for all medical students who want to understand their anatomy. The second edition is revised and even more user-friendly than the first edition. The text is clear and concise and is supplemented with beautiful computer generated illustrations. Although not as comprehensive as the “big“ Gray's Anatomy it certainly covers all that is needed to do very well at undergraduate level. If you enjoy anatomy and want to do more that memorise labels this book is for you!

Posted 19th Nov 2009