Students searching for a quick source of knowledge will treasure Synopsis of Surgery. Drs. Liechty and Soper, with other University of Iowa faculty members, have out-lined the entire spectrum of surgery.
The first ten excellent chapters deal with those aspects of surgery which are common to all specialties. Surgeons could well afford to review the material on wound healing, fluids and electrolytes, blood coagulation, infection, and nutrition. The remaining 32 chapters review the entire gamut of surgery by organ systems and the subspecialties. The authors utilize clever teaching aids to describe surgical pathophysiology lucidly. Excellent illustrations clarify complex problems such as renal vascular hypertension and bilirubin metabolism. The book is very readable and well organized and will be useful to teachers as well as students.
The strength of the book is in its succinct correlation of the basic science with clinical surgery. On the other hand, in their brevity, many