Customer Reviews

Andreoli and Carpenter's Cecil Essentials of Medicine: With STUDENT CONSULT Online Access, 8e (Cecil Medicine)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

For medical students, it doesn't get better than this. Cecil's Essentials, is in my opinion, in a similar caliber of books such as PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICE OF MEDICINE (Stobo et al), and DAVIDSON'S. Granted, this book lacks the detail and in-depth clinical pointers that some of the other heavier textbooks carry, but nonetheless, rivals all those books in its succint reviews of each condition, touching most importantly on the pertinent pathophysiology. A hearty recommendation for most 2nd or 3rd year medical students.

Good summary without being brief. Like a middle ground between review book and the much more boring Harrison's. Gets all the high points, the moderate points and even the pertinent details.

I get a hernia when I pick up Harrison's. I've used it twice this year. As a graduating senior, I collected all of my upperclassmen's suggestions of books. Cecil's has a bit more info than I'd like, but it's a readable length if you're not a procrastinator like me! Medwhiz's review is spot on.

Cecil's is extremely well written, and easily understood. It stresses only those topics that graduating seniors absolutely have to have a clue about by graduation, and it doesn't waste too much paper. It's not a pocketbook, but at about half the physical size of Harrison's, it's not easy to carry around, either.

If I had to buy only one book out of Harrison's, Cecil's, NMS, and Blueprints, I'd get Cecil's. It's well worth the money.

What this book does is give you a solid foundation about the pathophysiology associated with diseases. What it DOESN'T do if give you necessary clinical information required for boards, shelf exams, and clinical practice. For example, the sections on COPD and asthma: it does not discuss the different stages of severity of the diseases or what the guidelines recommend on treating the different stages. It's essential to know the difference between mild-intermittant asthma vs moderate-continuous asthma because different treatments go with it. It does not even discuss the stepwise approach to adding new medications to asthma patients.

This same pattern holds true throughout the text. It gives a good summary over pathophysiology, but does not go into clinical detail about classifying or treatment diseases, which is necessary for any medical student, resident, or practitioner.

A very good clear book, it is made for the student that has just started a course, and would like to have a clear overall view of the material. When I start a course, I would like to have a book that will give me the introduction, and only after I have seen with what I am dealing, I feel prepare enough to read some other much more detailed material. The details are saved for last.
This book is perfect for the introduction, and much more. If you would like to read about the smallest! details I suggest you read the bible of Harrison.
In short: THIS is the book for the med student, it serves as the skeleton ad muscles of the course; for the fat you should consult Harrison.
From my experience, a student should never start reading Harrison.
Cecil essentials serves as a quick review for all the internal med, before and after the exam.
Why 4 and not 5 stars? because i would have liked a more thorough and complete review of neurology.

This is the book my school recommends for the basic internal medicine course. Its amazing. If you are a reader, and like medicine, this is a must.

The writing flows like silk. The chapters on Cardiology and Molecular Medicine are PHENOMENAL. Its comprehensive without being overloaded with details, its brief without being too brief, its a very enjoyable from cover to cover.

To give you an example of the kind of details it misses, in Chronic Renal Disease, you get a nice explanation of the complications though no expansion on the viscous circle that happens.

One other downside is the lack of illustrations. There do exist but there aren't many, same goes for tables. Also, the Neurology section could be better.

Read it, then jump to Cecil or Harrison if you want more details. I had to do so and made a mistake buying Kumar which I didn't like.

My senior colleagues told me this is one of the best sources for USMLE Step 2. Seems to be the opinion of many people online too.

We are using this book and CMDT adn McCance Pathophysiology. I like this text for easy to understand explanations of the different disorders. CMDT does a better job of explaining labs and treatments and has a consistent organization, but can be heavy reading for trying to figure out what are the presenting s/sy of the disease. They are both good companion texts.

I wouldn't recommend this book for people who love photos and graphs. Although it does have some great summative charts, it's pretty wordy. It's great if you only have power points to learn from, though, as it helps fill in lots of missing explanations/details.

This book is great for clincial rotations, and I used it on almost all of them. It is clear, concise, and a relativly easy read despite its length. I actually read most of it during my Internal Medicine Clerkship, and I normally try to avoid reading the text at all costs. It doesn't go into extreme depth with the more rare conditions but that is why it is the "essentials". I'm tempted to upgrade to the full Cecil's just because of how much I loved this book, but why get rid of a good thing?

I really like this book, i am a second year medical student and this book is great so far. I love the charts and the organization it has!