Elizabeth Carr, The University of St Andrews

This book covers the anatomy, physiology, pharmacology and histology of every part of the digestive system. Each chapter covers a different part of the digestive system. The chapters are interspersed with clinical cases which makes the anatomy and physiology clinically relevant. I find the clinical cases maintain my interest by highlighting the clinical importance. Also included, are rarer diseases for added interest. The book contains many different examples of radiological imaging of the digestive system. I find this particularly useful for OSCE/OSPE exams, when it comes to interpreting and suggesting diagnoses from radiological images. The more images you see, the easier they are to interpret. The histology is explained quite well through simplified histological diagrams (as well as micrographs). I find these diagrams useful as it makes it clearer what you are actually looking at. Histology can often look like a load of pink blobs! The final chapter gives an overview of GI pathology. It gives further cases, signs, symptoms and treatments of different GI pathologies. There are lots of diagrams throughout the book to accompany the text. The diagrams are all very clear. I particularly like the clarity of the diagrams showing nerve pathways, which can often be quite unclear. Throughout the book, the diagrams and pages have two-tone green and black shading. The radiological and histological images are in black and white. This isn’t a problem for the radiological images, but for the histological images, the colours of the stains are not shown. This is not particularly a problem, as it is not intended to be an histology book. Overall, this is a very comprehensive book on the digestive system, for undergraduate medical students.

Posted 26th Jan 2011

George Collins, University College London

It’s a bold statement, but I think that every Medical student should own the entire “Systems of the Body” series. I’m lucky enough to have them all, and I’ve found them all utterly invaluable. “The Digestive System” contains all the relevant GI physiology, pharmacology and anatomy required for the studying Medical student, but the way it is delivered is what makes it so unique. Written in easy to read prose, Margaret Smith and Dion Morton make the topics genuinely exciting by including not only the common GI conditions, but also the rarer but interesting ones too. Therefore, each chapter gives the studying student a comprehensive overall picture of an aspect of GI medicine from pre-clinical physiology to clinical signs and symptoms. For clinical students, this book is compulsory reading and is best used alongside a Clinical Medicine textbook such Kumar and Clark or Davidson’s; texts which often rush through or brush over important (but less clinical) aspects.

Posted 12th Jan 2011

G, University of Bristol

This is a comprehensive introduction to the Digestive system. It uses a problem-based approach to demonstrate the basic science and its clinical relevance within medical practice. By combining both these approaches, ‘The Digestive System’ is suitable both as a textbook for science/medical courses, and as a bridge into the clinical environment. It offers you a carefully structured approach to learning the building blocks of the system. This book provides consolidated learning for medical students in their pre-clinical years, as well as for students enrolled on biomedical science courses; with all the core biomedical sciences encompassed in a concise format within the one volume. The book includes the relevant aspects of anatomy, physiology, pharmacology and pathology; and ensures a clear understanding of the functioning of the digestive system within the body as a whole.

Posted 10th Jun 2010