BRS Gross Anatomy, 8th edition

Book Preface

Anatomy is the science of studying and understanding the structure and organization of the body. The art of medicine requires a strong foundation in the basic medical sciences, and anatomy is a keystone in that foundation. This concise review of human anatomy is designed for medical, dental, graduate, physician associate, nursing, physical therapy, and other health science students. It is intended to help students prepare for the United States Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE), the National Board Dental Examination, as well as other board examinations for students in health-related professions. It presents the essentials of human anatomy in the form of condensed descriptions and simple illustrations.

The text is concisely outlined with related board-type questions following each section. An attempt has been made to include all board-relevant information without introducing a vast amount of material or entangling students in a web of details. Even though this book is in summary form, its content presents key elements of the full-text version with abundant clinical information. However, it is not intended to be used as a primary textbook for a comprehensive study of difficult concepts and fundamentals.

CHANGE OF ORGANIZATION

The new eighth edition begins with a brief introduction to the skeletal, muscular, nervous, circulatory, and organ systems. The introductory chapter is followed by chapters on regional anatomy. These include the introduction, back, thorax, abdomen, perineum and pelvis, lower limb, upper limb, head and neck, and cranial and autonomic nerves of the head and neck. The cranial and autonomic nerves are separated from the head and neck chapter and are described more extensively with high-quality illustrations to facilitate thorough understanding of cranial and autonomic nerve functions and memory retention of information.

Once more, anatomy forms a foundation of clinical medicine and surgery and is a visual science of human structures. Thus, the success of learning and understanding largely depends on the quality of dissection and on clear, accurate illustrations. Many of the illustrations are simple schematic drawings, which are used to enhance the student’s understanding of the descriptive text. A few of the illustrations are more complex, attempting to exhibit important anatomic relations. The considerable number of tables of muscles will prove particularly useful as a summary and review. In addition, the high-yield topics at the end of each chapter emphasize more important facts of anatomy and clinical medicine. These include numerous concise charts for the cranial nerves and their lesions, autonomic nerve functions, summary charts for muscle innervation and action, autonomic ganglia, and foramina of the skull and their contents in order to highlight pertinent aspects of the body system.

Test questions at the end of each chapter emphasize important information and lead to a better understanding of the material. These questions also serve as a self-evaluation to help the student uncover areas of weakness. Answers and explanations are provided after the questions.