Greenfield's Surgery

Reviews / Votes

JAMA, 28-JAN-06 -- "Dr Lazar Greenfield, following in the footsteps of his predecessors (Christopher, Shackelford, Cope, Schwartz, Spencer, Sabiston, and others), leaves his name indelibly on the title of a classic textbook of surgery but passes the chief-editor baton to his colleagues, Drs Michael Mulholland and Keith Lillemoe. They have been with him since the book's inception and share the vision of this being the premier surgical text for present and future generations of medical students, residents, and practicing surgeons. The fourth edition not only maintains the currency and superb quality of the book's content but establishes an unprecedented standard for advanced technology in education and training. The volume is accompanied by "Greenfield Solution," an online feature that allows access to (1) the complete and fully searchable online text; (2) "Q&A": a question-and-answer bank with more than 1000 questions, in both study and test modes, useful in preparing for the American Board of Surgery In-Training Examination as well as ABS certification and recertification examinations; (3) "PDA Downloads," which will delight residents who now live by that little gadget; (4) "Image Bank," which includes all of the Greenfield illustrations in full-color PowerPoint; and (5) abstracts and want ads, updated monthly from the Annals of Surgery. Finally, (6) there is a crosslink to procedures from the Mastery of Surgery textbook, with step-by-step descriptions of 50 of the most common ones. Reaching the "Greenfield Solution" is like playing the lottery, with a "scratch-off" inside the dust jacket providing the purchaser a personal code for access to http://www.thegreenfieldsolution.com. If there is credible support to the current trend of replacing medical libraries with the virtual and Internet varieties (abhorrent to those of us who have spent decades admiring medical and surgical textbooks), this edition of Greenfield may make believers out of many of us. This reviewer went immediately to the "Q&A" link and was gratified to score around 80 -85 on those questions based upon clinical practice and experience. Although I was embarrassed by my scores on the basic science questions, after reading the study mode and test mode review of answers, it was clear that studying the material would have assured a more successful outcome. I cannot envision a more scholarly and practical textbook/system of surgery appearing anytime in the near future. More than just a textbook, it is well worth the expense. And, for what it's worth, studying this edition of Greenfield's Surgery was actually fun "