Top Knife: The Art and Craft of Trauma Surgery

by Asher Hirshberg, Scott Weldon (Illustrator), Mary K. Allen (Editor)

The single most important lesson we hope you will derive from this book is to always keep it simple because, in trauma surgery, the simple stuff works.
This book will help you take a badly wounded patient to the operating room, organize yourself and your team, do battle with some vicious injuries and come out with the best possible result. It is a practical guide to operative trauma surgery for residents and registrars, for general surgeons with an interest in trauma, and for isolated surgeons operating on wounded patients in military, rural or humanitarian settings. A surgical atlas may show you what to do with your hands but not how to think, plan and improvise. Here you will find practical advice on how to use your head as well as your hands when operating on a massively bleeding trauma patient. The first part of this book presents some general principles of trauma surgery. The second part is about trauma surgery as a contact sport. Here we show you how to deal with specific injuries to the abdomen, chest, neck and peripheral vessels.

Genres: Medicine, Medical, Nonfiction, Science

234 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2004

Reviews

[Nicole]

The ideal audience of this book is that of surgeons, specifically residents/fellows, interested in reading tales of the trade by two masters. I doubt anyone else would find it remotely interesting as it would be highly technical for a non-medical reader. In any event, it was superbly written, with excellent accompanying diagrams to assist the reader. I am sure I'll be re-reading portions of this many times over.

[Christopher]

This is seriously making me want to become a Trauma surgeon and I've hated the idea of surgery previously.

[Isabella]

I just finished "Top Knife: The Art and Craft of Trauma Surgery" written by Asher Hirshberg. It was essentially about the techniques and principles for certain emergency surgical procedures. The authors gave helpful tips and tricks to those procedures that have worked for them as surgeons themselves. One of the main themes that the authors tried to convey in this book is that trauma surgery is a unique field of surgery. It's really an art rather than a form of medicine. You have to get creative in trying to fix a patient's hemorrhagic bleeding or fixing severe fractures. And if one way doesn't work, you find a new way. Overall, it was an okay book. I am not a surgeon, yet. I am a rising freshman in college, and this book tends to be on the more technical side. It was kind of hard for me to understand because it is geared more towards current surgeons. However, it will be a great book and reference to have when I actually become a trauma surgeon. Overall, 2/5

[Karen Carlson]

Intended for trauma surgeons, this isn't a book most non-medical people would find interesting. But, some of us love medical stuff and don't let lack of a medical degree get in the way.
Besides, one of the authors referred to it as "surgical philosophy" in the spirit of the Rules mentioned in Samuel Shem's hilarious novel House of God, so there's a lot that applies to life in general - like, "learn to distinguish between small problems and Big Trouble" and "choose a solution that fails well."
FMI see my blog post at A Just Recompense.

[Daniel González-Hermosillo C.]

Un libro obligado para el quirúrgico. Es el equivalente al arte de la guerra de la cirugía de trauma, escrito de manera exquisita, refleja la complejidad de estos pacientes y los cientos de años de experiencia acumulados para mejorar su atención

[Paul Roach]

Awesome book - pithy, topical, funny even --completely unlike most medical reading. Recommended for every General Surgery resident.

[Bunny Peach]

Many people think the core of trauma surgery is "saving lives" But this book is honest about something harder to accept, not every intervention is meant to extend time. When you have truly lived through a loved one’s chronic illness or end of life stage, you begin to understand that the hardest part is never the technique. It is the choice. This is not a "healing" book. It is more like a cold white light

[Ben Varghese]

I’m biased because this is what I enjoy doing/thinking about. This book is THE guide of how to think about trauma. A solid grounding in surgical principles is needed before tackling some of the sections. That can make reading it a little inaccessible.

[Schwingi]

Best surgery book there is!!!

[Sabir Mea]

Came after recommendation from utube...want to download free in my country

[Christopher Pritting]

Excellent read! Must-read for any surgery resident. Great pictures and the authors cut to the chase with how to manage certain issues. Glad I read it

[Charlotte Davies]

This book was very well written with Some useful hints. It was more useful for the Trauma surgeon than in the emergency department.

[Amin13]

Really nice guide as a general trainee as facing trauma