Medicine & Surgery: A Concise Textbook Paperback – Illustrated, 14 Oct. 2005

This under-recommended textbook is brilliant. It includes everything that you need to know- it's laid out clearly and does everything you need of it. Suitable for third MB and beyond, it can be used as a reference or revision aid.It's suitable for every undergraduate's shelf; it’s half the size, but twice as readable as its competitors!

The authors have set themselves a tricky task here - to provide an undergraduate medical textbook combining all you need to know for medicine, surgery and pathology all under one roof. I have to say they have done this extremely well. The book is written in a very readable style, with the more difficult and high-yield topics like fluid and electrolyte balance explained in detail, but unlike the larger textbooks for medicine and surgery space is not taken up with meanderings into minutiae and medical small-print (which is interesting to read if you have all the time in the world but a pain to wade through close to exams). The authors have stuck to what they think you need to know to understand medicine and surgery well enough to pass finals. The layout is very clear, with a 'surgical sieve' style adopted for most topics i.e. 'Definition', 'Aetiology', 'Investigations' etc. but this is a proper textbook rather than a series of lists, and is actually quite enjoyable to read. There are some good diagrams too, although sadly all in black and white. All in all, I would recommend this book and wish it had been available when I started clinical school.

A near perfect book - concise, readable, easily reproducible diagrams. It actually helps you understand each disease (pathophysiology!) rather than just throw lists at you, as a refreshing change. The surgery sections are surprisingly good!