Latifa Patel, University of Liverpool

Like Kumar and Clark But Not... I give this book a Buyer Rating of 5/5 (Go buy it... NOW). Firstly, this book is big, very big. But then with as much information as it has, I guess it has to be. From cover to cover this book is filled with great information. Covering both Medicine and Surgery with regards to each disease and system. It was interesting to see how this was done as on hearing about it I was a bit sceptical. In my opinion the disease is discussed in the normal with an added section titled, "Surgical Management" and it works. There's also plenty of clinical tips on examining patients. Although it is a big book its not a difficult read. The margins are ample sized to allow annotations and the book is beautifully decorated with really useful images including brief anatomy, radiographs and key symptoms. I wouldn't recommend it for revision purely as it is too much to revise from but as a learning resource it is ideal. You could revise Medicine and Surgery together saving time later or separately. Whatever suits you best! Hope that was useful. Enjoy, Latifa (",)

Posted 12th Sep 2009

Matthew Lee, The University of Edinburgh

This book is a beauty. It is very readable, and easy to follow with a relatively large font and very clear coloured and pictured headings. There are key references conveniently located after each section. The layout and formatting of this book is superb, and it is evident that lots of thought has gone into it! There is a mini contents column on the side of every double page, making it easy to find your stuff, and to be reminded of the chapter's contents. Once I start reading, I find it difficult to close this book! Also, I like the fact that the content is divided into three levels: (1) common conditions are covered comprehensively, (2) less common diseases, and (3) rarer diseases. It is very practical, and is written to illustrate the clinical decision-making process. Investigations are divided into initial & further investigations. Management is split into initial, medical & surgical management (Integrated indeed!), making it easier to understand & remember. This book helps readers get to grips with basic sciences too. Sentences are concise, yet thorough, and you have to love the briliant tables & charts & pictures. Although a large book, you don't have to carry it around - online access is available. I wish I'd gotten this book earlier! A worthwhile investment. Will be exceptionally useful for finals!

Posted 20th Mar 2009

Esther Tan, King's College London

This textbook is indeed integrated, covering a wide scope of diseases from both a medical and surgical view-point equally. The chapters of this book are categorised into systems and begins with a review of the anatomy and phyiology of that system, providing a link between basic sciences covered in pre-clinical years with clinical sciences. Each chapter also includes a section on the different investigations which may be encountered for that system and describes why/when/how they are used what the results imply. It then goes on to describe individual diseases and their treatments. Do not be put off by the size of this book - it does not go into a great amount of detail (appropriate at medical student level) but it does cover a very large variety of diseases. It is concise and readable with clear diagrams/tables and lots of accompanying pictures. Overall a worthwhile investment, especially for final year students.

Posted 31st Dec 2008

David Miller, University of Glasgow

Lim, Loke and Thomson have certainly pushed the boundaries of textbooks by integrating medicine and surgery but in doing so have created an amazing new breed of book which is extremely user friendly, enables more efficient studying and above all amalgamate the subjects to provide a disease-centric one stop shop clinical guidebook. The very practical disease centred approach differs from any traditional textbooks in that removes the boundaries created by studying subjects in isolation and integrates all aspects of science, clinical presentation and treatment and care of the condition. Patients don’t present with a well categorised –ology so its only fitting that your learn diseases in a rounded and integrated approach working around. All courses especially PBL ones expect students to learn and apply their knowledge in an integrated manner and this textbook certainly addresses this need. The key advantage of Medicine and Surgery is that it has an extremely student user friendly layout uniformly throughout the book. Some essential features of the layout which I found useful:

• - All diseases and systems chapters follow a very clear common pattern progression in their layout complements the colourful icons which mark out titles for aspects like pathology or clinical features or treatment. 
• - The index is comprehensive 
• - Systems chapters are colour coded 
• - Scope of disease- a new feature to textbooks which helps remind you that the disease can present as a secondary complication. It helps with differentials too.

 

Overall Medicine and Surgery is an extremely innovative colourful approach to clinical medicine which really helps you to learn around diseases in an integrated and holistic way. It is particularly well laid out, very easy on the eye and makes extracting the information you need easy. Finally I think this book is extremely good value for money and I defy anyone to find such a comprehensive clinical textbook for such a modest price. My only complaint- why didn’t they bring this book out when I started out in first year This really is a MUST have book for anyone on a PBL course.

Posted 20th Aug 2008

Dominic Haigh, University of Birmingham

It’s rare as a medical student that you come across a new idea for a textbook, especially concerning fields thousands of years old. The title Medicine & Surgery indicates the premise that these are different options to manage the same patients. After going through the basics of a disease, recent advances, epidemiology and pathology, management is explained. Crucially, clinical features and initial investigations are also demarcated and easy to find, there are no great stretches of continuous text to get lost in. References are every few pages, useful for further reading, demonstrating the evidence base and dropping into presentations. Lim is best read as a reference, where minutes after encountering a patient with a condition you can have a good idea of where they are going next. Later on, you can go back and read in more depth. And that, I suppose, is the aim of the book.

Posted 1st Jul 2008

Donna Pilkington, University of Manchester

This is one of the best books I have ever read. It has taken the topics of medicine and surgery and has effortlessly combined them into one really excellently written and thorough textbook. It is beautifully laid out, and well presented with numerous coloured diagrams and pictures throughout to enhance the text and to aid understanding. The topics of medicine and surgery are comprehensively covered in an easy to understand and concise manner and full colour is used throughout. Each condition is split into sections covering epidemiology, pathology, scope of disease, clinical features, initial and further investigations, initial, medical and surgical management and prognosis. This really is an amazing textbook which should be the recommended textbook at all medical schools. Never before has one text brought together the topics of medicine and surgery with such simplicity and clarity. I would highly recommend this textbook to medical students and junior doctors alike.

Posted 1st Jul 2008

Kathleen Elliott For SHARPS The Aberdeen Medics Newsletter, University of Aberdeen

Could this one book be the solution to our exam fears and future careers — the holy grail of a book that we have all been searching for which will provide all the answers we need in one place? While I am known for my compulsive textbook purchasing (some girls buy shoes, I buy anatomy atlases…) and I do love to stare at my creaking bookshelves which make me feel deceptively knowledgeable, the idea of a single book which combines both the MB and the ChB is very appealing. Lim’s Medicine and Surgery does a very good job of this in a clear and concise manner.
The structure of the textbook satisfies all my autistic tendencies by covering common diseases in a systematic way with the headings ‘epidemiology’, ‘pathology’, ‘scope of disease’, ‘clinical features’, ‘investigations’, ‘management’ and ‘prognosis’. Each ‘investigations’ section is divided into initial and further investigations allowing you to think through managing the disease in a real time setting. Explanations of individual investigations and what you might expect to find are particularly useful and clear. Management is further divided into initial management, medical management and surgical management, thus providing a clear way in which to think about options for treatment. One area where I felt a little more detail could have been included is the ‘clinical features’ section which sometimes is not as comprehensive as it could be.
As a surgery textbook there is not as much detail as might be needed for making the most of your surgical attachments. Relevant clinical anatomy and precise descriptions of procedures as can be found in pure surgery texts are not included and I would recommend consulting other books for a more in depth understanding of each surgical specialty — particularly for those of you committed to pursuing a career in ‘cutting’.
The book comes with free online access to a web-based version of the text which can be easily searched and for those of you technology lovers you can download text to your handheld PDA. In addition the image library with very good pictures of various imaging and clinical signs will come in handy when preparing those all too frequent and slightly random group presentations during 4th year. Medicine & Surgery is a book I would recommend to all undergraduates who want a comprehensive textbook to use when revising for final exams. Although a little pricey it includes the majority of the information you need to do well in finals in a fantastically readable and understandable way… And it adds a nice solid chunk of text to those overflowing shelves of mine — I’m feeling way more intelligent already!

Posted 1st Jul 2008

LukᚠHrzán, Charles University, Prague

An Integrated textbook? First I was sceptical,preferring texts which have some history and show evolution.But this one is not too bad.It deals finely with the main diseases, or clinical units, of each organ system. The layout is great, with many illustrations, images, tables. With each chapter we have a clear description system which enables absolutely sharp orientation.It covers the important points that a student needs to know.That is most useful.However an effort to reduce reading time made the text a bit dry, uniform, almost definition-based.The clinical medicine part coverage is adequate-the sentences explain the core of the problem and its management.However the surgical-part seems a bit like the Cinderella — it outlines only the basics. But even then — every sentence is a pearl — a must know. So while I would still recommend bigger separate texts, a student who doesn’t like digging through Bibles, lacks time, but wants to be sure that he grasps the most important keypoints of the subject — which after all is the point of the project of an integrated student {and textbook} may find, that this book will give him exactly what he needs — a clear insight into the most important diseases and their management.For the bible-lovers: get something heavy, without pictures, dig through redundant detail and triple your reading time!

Posted 1st Jul 2008

Pauline Law, University of Dundee

This book aims to deliver a unified approach to disease management and it succeeds in this very well. The inclusion of appropriate surgical management adds the extra dimension to conventional textbooks.
The chapters are well presented with the use of icons to indicate the content of the paragraphs to follow. CT scans and x rays with labelled images allow the reader to clearly see the abnormality. Tables are well laid out and catch the eye very quickly.
The style of writing is very easy to read and presents an over view of a disease state which would well equip a student to understand case studies and answer questions.
The only downside is that it assumes an understanding of medical terms and so I feel would suit a 2nd year student upwards but would be of use for the remainder of their learning.

Posted 1st Jul 2008