General Anatomy and Musculoskeletal System receives five stars from
Doody's Book Reviews!
REVIEWER'S EXPERT OPINION
Xiaoming Zhang, MD, PhD (University of Kansas Medical Center)
Description
This is a very useful atlas for general anatomy and particularly musculoskeletal anatomy. It organizes a lot of high yield facts into tables, charts, and functioning illustrations and this provides a nice interconnection among anatomy, cell and tissue biology, physiology, neurophysiology, physical therapy, and surgery. Therefore, it is not only a book for students in these fields, but also a good reference for instructors and practitioners.
Purpose
The purpose is to provide an atlas for students in their initial stages of studying anatomy and a reliable reference source for professionals. These are very worthy objectives in the field of anatomy and both of these purposes are well met by this publication.
Audience
According to the authors, the book is written for students and for
practitioners. Although the authors did not specify which fields or specialties, the book is particularly useful for medical or physical therapy students for their anatomy study and it is a very useful reference book for practitioners in the fields of physical therapy and surgery. I do not have any way to judge the credibility of the authors, but based on the quality of the book, the authors are highly qualified.
Features
The book covers extensively the anatomy of the musculoskeletal system of the human body. This includes all the bones, joints, muscles, and their associated vessels and nerves. I want to point out several unique features of the book:
- The organization of the book is unique. It combines topics such as cell and tissue biology and functioning anatomy into a gross anatomy atlas. This provides a very useful cross reference tool for students and professionals.
- The use of tables and charts makes the book concise. They are very well produced.
- The book is very accurate in terms of the drawings and text contents.
- A lot of the figures are function oriented. These differ from some of the traditional anatomy atlas figures by illustrating from unique angles that are more related to clinical practice.
- The figures are produced with superior quality. Some figures are the best drawings I have ever seen in an anatomy atlas. There is one mistake on page 162 on the label of the drawing, "B Arteries of the trunk wall." The label "Lateral thoracic artery" should be "Thoracodorsal artery."
Assessment
This is one of the best anatomy atlases. It is superior in quality. It is accurate. It is very useful to both students and practitioners. I can only compare this book with Netter's Atlas of Human Anatomy, 3rd
edition (Icon Learning Systems).
This book has three stronger points than Netter's:
- The illustrations are of better quality although Netter's is a high quality atlas.
- Organization is a better approach.
- It has more contents with tables, charts, text, and functioning illustrations.
One reason that this book cannot replace Netter's is that it only covers general anatomy and the musculoskeletal system in detail, lacking information on organs and body cavities. However, it complements the Netter atlas nicely. I would recommend both to my students.
Weighted Numerical Score: 100 - 5 Stars!
For additional information on the THIEME Atlas of Anatomy Series, log on to www.thieme.com/thiemeatlasofanatomy/index.html.
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