Orthopaedic Secrets is good book to use, especially if you know what cases will be coming up in advance. There is a page or two on just about everything you will encounter. I am months away from my first ortho rotation and I flip through a section or two every couple days now.

i would really try and secure a copy of hoppenfeld's surgical approaches book as well as the hoppenfeld physical exam of the spine and extremities book. you will be expected to be stellar on anatomy and not much more. i just checked copies out from our library and kept renewing them for my rotations.

I agree with BoneBlaster. All you have to know is anatomy, for which Hoppenfeld's approaches is fantastic. Read through it and you will be ahead of the game. All the rest is icing on the cake, so to speak. Look at the cases a the day before, read up on them and the anatomy, and you will kick butt.

The problem with using Miller's is that it assumes that you have a knowledge of all the subjects in it. Remember that it is a REVIEW book. I used it during my ortho rotations in fourth year, it helped some, but I felt a little lost. I agree with knowing the anatomy, you'll never go wrong there. Also, I've found that knowing basic fracture care (casting, splinting, etc..) is useful: for this, use a good fracture handbook (Perry or Koval and Zuckerman).

I've been paging through Orthopedics for the house officer. It's only about 180 pages and really quite good. I read Sneider Essentials of Muscuolskeletal Care during my 3rd year rotation which is longer but easier to read. I've heard Millers is good but fairly intense as that is what most junior residents read.

Textbooks:
I agree with the Hoppenfeld series of books. they're orthopaedic scripture. I bought Hoppenfeld's "Physical examination of the spine and extremities" and Hoppenfeld's "Neurology." Both were great books. The "PE" book is a MUST have for the collection. I bought the "Neuro" book because I was spending some time on the spine service (excellent prep for that). Hoppenfeld's "Exposures" is expensive but good. I wouldn't buy it, I'd just consult it in your ortho library when you need it.

Pocketbooks:
You NEED a fracture handbook.
Koval and Zuckerman is the gold standard here. It was out of print for a few years but they just started printing it again last year.

"Handbook of frx's" (by Perry): The book that I used. Also very good.

I found that the other pocket books like "Ortho. Pearls" and "Secrets" were a waste of time and money.

Review books:
Miller: used by many residents. May be too much at the 4th year student level.

Current Clinical dx in Orthopaedic Surgery (from the infamous "Current" series: This is what I used. More basic, but very complete and hi-yield. Covers everything from basic science to tumor. Very easy read. I highly recommend it.

Baratz (essentials of ortho?): Don't know any thing about it, but one of my classmates liked the book a lot.

With that said, the only thing that was expected of me during my rotations was that I knew my anatomy and basic science. If you can go that extra mile and know things like treatment options, surgical indications, and splinting techniques, you'll destroy your rotations.

I would not recommend trying to read Baratz before the rotation... I'm trying to read it now as my intern year draws closer; however if you like to be a super gunner like bonejock.... feel free.

T-
Good to have you back in town.
)

An excellent intro book
is Wiesel's Essentials of Orthopaedic Surgery.
It's only 200 p. long but packed w/ good info.

Wiesel also has a new book out just this year that is the "long" textbook version of the above book called:
"Principles of Ortho med. and Surg." that is a great book. Very long, but easier to read and more oriented towards junoir residents/students than most other ortho texts I've seen.

I agree that Secrets is a good resource, but not for laying down a good foundation, better as a review.

- Hoppenfeld's Surgical Exposures; $200; borrow or buy; surgical exposures won't change too much
- Hoppenfeld's PE; only browsed but looks great; I borrowed; a little $$$ for what you get
- Baratz is great SELECTIVE read; covers eval and diagnosis to surgical tx and outcomes; includes diagrams and radiographs
- Secrets is denser than appears; not the most most efficient first read; as is characteristic of the series, it has some low yield "trivia" and no radiographs
- Wiesel's Essentials is an EXCELLENT intro to ortho and appropriate pre-rotation read; short and very easy reading; well worth the $35; scant surgical tx; focus on common things and conservative mgt
- Helm's Radiology is an EXCELLENT intro to mostly bone plain film and some joint/soft tissue radiology; again short and easy

Just wrote this in the Ped's post below, but I think the best book to read for someone starting ortho rotations is Textbook of Disorders and Injuries of the Musculoskeletal System by Robert Salter (Yeah, that Salter). Obviously all of the above books are great (Hoppenfeld, Secrets, etc.) but this book gives you a pretty firm base upon which to build. The other books assume you already have this base. Anyway it is all personal preference in the end, just my two cents.

Just a note on Hoppenfeld's PE book: Even though the book is good in covering the overall M-S exam, it lacks in particular tests for a variety of pathologies. As someone mentioned in an earlier thread, it does not talk about Lachman's test for ACL, and that's just one deficiency.
A quick and easy book that complements Hopenfeld's or Reider's Orth PE (a good but lengthy PE book) is a book called Special Tests for Orthopedic Examination by Konin. This book gives you the "quick and dirty" about many specialized tests in orthopedics.