Customer Rating: 
Summary: Tough subject, poor textbook.
Comment: Very difficult to correlate the line drawings with the blown-up grayscale CT slices, which just don't seem to look the same as the real thing. The Sagittal MR slices in chapter 2 are exceptionally difficult for the intended audience to follow.Factual and typographical errors occur throughout this text, such as identifying the vertebral foramen as the trachea on page 55.
It seems like there could have been a better effort to develop the reader's understanding of 3D anatomy, rather than the brief review of freshman anatomy that is given.
Instructors, please don't inflict this torture on your students.
Customer Rating:
Summary: There must be a better book out there..., part I
Comment: I was required to use Mr. Madden's book and workbook for a sectional anatomy class I took for a medical program. This could be a pretty good book, but misses the mark for several reasons:1. Mislabeling. Many structures are just plain labeled wrong, sometimes egregiously wrong, such as aorta for trachea, etc.
2. Incomplete labeling. For example, in a section where location and identification of common carotids is hugely important, Mr. Madden labels either one side of the image only or something like "int/ext common carotid" without distinguishing which is which. However, knowing which is which is vital!
3. Text boxes. Usually Mr. Madden notes salient features in the text boxes on the facing plates to the CT or MR. However, even when he stresses important anatomical landmarks, he DOES NOT LABEL them on the diagram accompanying the image. The student reads the words but has no way to identify the structure. This is pointless!
4. Lack of correlation: Many times, structures just "appear" on a plate with no connection to their partial appearance on preceding or subsequent plates; yet it is this exact skill that is the foundation of an understanding of sectional anatomy.
5. Workbook: At no time in the workbook does Mr. Madden show a simple schematic indicating the plane of section. This is vital for reference and, again, for correlation.
6. Erroneous terms: There are erroneous, mistyped, misedited, or just plain invented medical terms, such as "optic chiasma" (should be chiasm) and "lenticular nucleus" (should be lentiform).
This book seems like a work in progress but no one is improving it. Why not? For the money, the medical student should get a lot more. Anyone with suggestions of a better book (other than Moller/Reif's atlases of sectional anatomy, which are simple and elegant, but could use textual explanations for the beginner), please e-mail me. Perhaps future editions of this book will display some needed corrections.
