Customer Reviews

The ABSITE Review

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is my fourth year taking the absite, and I stopped reading the book a quarter of the way through it. This book has too many mistakes that will not be picked up by junior level residents who have not read in depth surgical texts. I would recommend "The Surgical Review: An Integrated Basic and Clinical Science study guide" 2nd edition

My most sincere admiration goes to Dr. Fiser. This is my third year of looking for the best material for the ABSITE. So far the Michigan Review is my favorite one, but now that I just finished reading "The ABSITE Review" I must say it's my #1. There were hardly any Mich. questions that I couldn't find answers for in this book.

I am very impressed with Dr. Fiser's clarity of thoughts. He makes all subjects seem so easy through logical, straightforward explanations. No wonder he's now at one of the world's top fellowships...

The bottom line is that I would recommend reading a textbook as you see cases all year round and about 2-3 months before the test focus on reading this gem over and over again.

Very dense, thorough review, fits into lab coat. Unfortuantely the descriptions leave you with little clue about dx or tx for different diseases, just word assosications. Also, if you read something fuller, the info in here just seems wrong. Good for review, if you read something else, but then in that case why read this at all?

The Absite Review is a great book to have for any surgical resident or med student wanting to go into surgery. Many of the previous reviews have gone in depth at reviewing the content. This review, however, is more focused on the comparison between the 2nd and 3rd edition:

The 2nd edition of The Absite Review has served me well as a good "cliff-notes" resource during my 4th year acting internships and the start of residency. When I saw that a new (3rd) edition came out with almost 100 more pages (jumping to 403 from the previous 317 pages), I was curious to see what new information had been added. So, I bought it and decided to check out just how much new info has been added. There is some new tables, some new algorithms, and some various new information, but the main reason for the drastic increase in the number of pages is that the font has been increased and many of the images have been unnecessarily enlarged! The larger print and images, I feel, has been to the detriment of the formatting and led to inappropriate page breaks within topics.

If you have the 2nd edition, I wouldn't sweat upgrading to the 3rd. Only buy the new edition if you have an extra $50+ to spend or if this is going to be your first time to purchase The Absite Review.

Great book, fits easily in the pockets of your white coat for quick review. It has a ton of great info and if you memorize the book you'll probably kill the ABSITE. Good luck. I think it's a great supplement to your regular textbook reading. It even helps to dig yourself out of a whole on rounds or preparing for the OR. Don't expect any detailed surgical procedures in this book, it's purpose is really to get you to pass the test, and is on the whole, more helpful for interns and PGY-2s, rather than 3-5+. You won't go wrong reading this in it's entirety multiple times.

Bought it a few days ago and I like the distilled content-type format, but I just read the burns chapter and found some errors or misleading info... E.g. Staph is the most common burn infection, and pseudomonas is only more common with topical ABx; silver sulfadiazine (not silver nitrate) is contraindicated in G6PD-deficient pts, and Stevens-Johnson is not a more severe form of TEN (it's the other way around). I'm a new intern and caught 3 mistakes on my first pass through 4 pages, which does not bode well for the accuracy of this book. Pretty disappointed Steve.

As the title indicates, its ABSITE review, that is what this book is written for, rapid review before the exam, not to be a primary source, not for undergraduates, not for those who don't read regularly , i love it, very focused , rapid refreshing review , can be read in 1 week, need to be reread once again, though tiny as regards volume , addresses a lot of the tricky points.
specialty surgery need to be expanded a bit, the font (the text size ) need to be expanded so that you can have a place for add on notes
How to use this book
1- have a good background from one of ur essential books
2- read this book in 1 week.
3- add on ur notes
4- knock the exam

you will be frustrated if u think u can use this book as ur primary source.

this book is designed to be a concise, topic based review for the absite. it is the most efficient way to spend your time, although the outline format is boring. people that write a negative review don't get the point.

This is a great review book for the ABSITE. Not at all a replacement for more in depth text like Sabiston's or Greenfield's but perfect for bringing to like the details that will be covered on the exam. Not written in paragraph format but rather with a number of lists and charts so base its usefulness on your own learning habits.

Why so small? because it just lists line facts on each topic. Covers all essential topics with good factual knowledge assuming the user has read a more detailed surgical text. It has excellent pictures and serves its purpose very well as an aide memoir. Better that other review texts as it is small and easy to carry around allowing the user preparing for exams to have it all the time