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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Slightly disappointing, January 28, 2008
This review is from: Current Surgical Therapy: Expert Consult: Online and Print, 9e (Current Therapy) (Hardcover)
A must-read to prepare for oral exams, or to quickly review concepts of patient management. The new edition has some significant updates in laparoscopy and trauma care, but has lapsed somewhat in quality. Doesn't replace a good surgical reference like Schwartz, Sabiston, or Greenfield.
I'm disappointed by many errors in this edition. Some chapters have some small errors missed by the editing team. Some chapters are also based on the opinions of individual authors, and may not necessarily reflect the current standard of care. It would have been nice to see some more evidence-based material added. For example, the chapter on laparoscopic CBDE may be applicable to large academic centres, but I don't think it reflects most surgical centres in the world. I would have liked to see a bit more on open CBDE.
Many illustrations are also illegible. This is unacceptable for a reference-level publication. It reflects poorly on the credibility of the publisher and makes me question the rest of the book.
Overall a disappointment. A previous edition supplemented with a quick internet search might offer better information.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Save your money. Skip this poorly illustrated edition., January 27, 2009
This review is from: Current Surgical Therapy: Expert Consult: Online and Print, 9e (Current Therapy) (Hardcover)
Having just read Cameron's 8th edition cover to cover, I was disappointed to find that its follow-up was a downgrade. The paper quality is poorer. Despite the addition of a "Color Section", many of the photos are extremely fuzzy, as if they were taken with one of the first digital cameras ever made. Some of the illustrations are so dark that they appear as just a black splotch on the page (see the ultrasound and CT images of liver cysts). Others are too light (see the image of an Laryngeal Mask Airway). I thought that maybe my copy had just been printed poorly, but the corresponding images online are just as shoddy. I have not read through enough of this edition to be able to compare the text, but surgical residents should heed Dr. Cameron's caveat that the treatments described in this book reflect the individual practices of doctors who have been recognized as experts in their respective fields. I can only hope that the tenth edition, scheduled to arrive in 2011, will be an improvement upon its predecessor, especially in the graphics department.
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3.0 out of 5 stars
Good book; horrible website, November 30, 2010
This review is from: Current Surgical Therapy: Expert Consult: Online and Print, 9e (Current Therapy) (Hardcover)
In the modern era of textbooks, more and more are making online copies of the textbook available. Cameron's Current Surgical Therapy is keeping with the times and has chosen Expert Consult to carry their electronic version. There are obvious security concerns to protect against unauthorized access; however, Expert Consult is one of the slowest, most cumbersome, and lease reliable websites available.
The book only loads in small sections at a time on the website, often requiring a new page to load after only reading a single paragraph. On the other extreme, some of the sections that load in large blocks of text take so long to read that the website has logged you out by the time you finish reading it, requiring that you log out, log back in, then find where you left off. Also, for anyone thinking they could easily load and read this on their iPad, think again. It only highlights the slow loading webpages.
The book itself is alright, although the editing often leaves large amounts of redundancy within sections and does not always group concepts appropriately.
Overall Impression - Be ready to haul around the actual textbook to get the most out of this as the Expert Consult website is the most disappointing aspect of this book.
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