Customer Reviews

Physiology, 2e (Saunders Text and Review Series)

5 star:		(58)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is not the book that my Med school recommended, Berne & Levey was the recommended book. Most of us bought it, and most of those copies are gathering dust. This is simply the best physiology book there is. Linda Costanzo is a master at simplifying physiology, and teaching it in great detail. The concepts are explained brilliantly. What Netter & Moore are to anatomy, Costanzo is to Physiology.

I agree with the other reviewers. This book is a "must have" for any medical student. Sure, go ahead and buy Guyton & Hall or any other physiology text (if you have the cash) for extreme details, but this book will be good enough 98% of the time. The pictures and diagrams included are just as useful as the text. We already have enough to study for boards, don't use another book and be bogged down by useless detail. Save yourself the grief and just buy this book!

I do not think there is a better physiology book out there that can explain what you need to know without going into millions of pages of needless explanations in medical school. We just don't have the time to read texts and this book does an awesome job of explaining physiology in a concise manner. The small physio Costanzo review book is good- this one is even better! Sometimes you need just a bit more of an explanation. I use this book to accompany all of my physio lectures.

I have searched long and hard to find a great Physiology book, and I found it in Professor Constanzo's book. It is a fantastic book that I enjoyed so much,that helped me tremendously before my Step 1, and that I use even now (I am an intern) when I want to review a physiology concept. So, I highly recommend it to everyone. It is extremely well written, the concepts are extremely well taught and it has clinical correlations, too.
Therefore, I only wish that Professor Constanzo had added a chapter on the physiology of blood (blood components, hemostasis), which apparently she has not done in this edition.
Other than that I have only great things to say about this book!

After Netter, this was my favorite and most used 1st Year medical school book. In fact, this is the only book that I consistently read during my first year of medical school. It's that good.

One caveat, there are areas that are weaker than others. One that comes to mind is smooth muscle (VSMC). All in all, don't miss out on this one, great explanations, organization and some excellant diagrams.

This book is a life saver for physiology in med school. It is easy to read and is short and sweet. She doesn't go into long unecessary details, but gets right to the point. So very helpful for studying as a supplement to physio lectures in med school. She has a shorter board review book, which is also good, but sometimes you just need a better explanation, and this book offers that and more.

My classmates and I were the first students of a new physiology professor at our university. Due to the professor's unorganized yet detailed notes that did not correspond to our textbook and a lack of teaching skills for our curriculum, I not only had to review Physio for Step1 but learn it as well. Although Costanzo's BRS Physio is great, it assumes a baseline understanding. Big Costanzo is great! Not only could I finish it within a week, but I understand it! She is adept at emphasizing the significant aspects of physio without sounding redundant: for example, she will state the important general picture within the first paragraph, restate the broad idea immediately prior to giving further descriptions, and then sum everything up at the end. She understands that not everyone learns the same way and incorporates all modes of relaying information within this book: her tables, concept maps, format of the text, and question sections are all easy to follow. I only wish I had purchased this book instead of our "required medical text" that cost 2x as much but won't be used proportionally.

This book is very easy to understand. It is in outline format and is very concise. Does not give you all this xtra information that you may run into with a standard Physiology text book... It summarizes and gives you the most important features of each topic or atleast the most pertinent to you. I like this book and will keep it to add to my own personally science library because who knows when you will need it next time? maybe to cram for an exam?

What a relief to have a physio text which gets right to the point without leaving the details behind. This book is a perfect balance between too little and too much. Towards the end of the course many of the students in my class had discovered this text and it was a "hot" commodity around school. Don't wait till the course is winding up, this is a great text to keep and keep as a reference. Totallt straight forward and EASY to read. I'm selling my Boron online!

Dr. Costanzo really does a good job breaking down complicated PHYSIO concepts into an easily readable format. The book has a bunch of helpful diagrams and charts to help drive key points home, and is a great resource for reviewing the fundamentals when trying to tie everything together for Boards.