Surgical Recall (2017)

Surgical Recall (2017) is a marked improvement upon Surgical Recall (2012), which I reviewed elsewhere.

The 2017 edition, like its predecessor, is packed with high-yield clinical information. While the book is obviously surgery oriented, most of the material in it is extremely relevant to most major medical specialties, including internal medicine, family medicine, and pediatrics. Solid tumors, relevant to almost every branch of medicine, are covered particularly well. This information, which hard to find in many other medical review books, is presented here in a very clear and concise way.

Compared to the 2012 edition, the current edition is much shorter (640 pages versus 825) and twenty-five percent lighter. This is very rare in medical publishing, where books tend to get more bloated and unreadable with each subsequent edition. The current edition, however, is actually more readable and user-friendly compared to its predecessor. Also, the images, now in color, are more lively, and the font is slimmer and easier to read.

The book is written in a rapid-fire question and answer format. While aggressive, hostile, or demeaning “pimping” is falling out of favor as a pedagogical tool in medicine, the Socratic method remains a time-honored teaching tool, particularly in the surgical specialities.

I therefore recommend this book very highly to medical students and residents.

Participation question

What’s your favorite introductory surgery book and why?