Robbins and Cotran Review of Pathology, 5th Edition
By: Edward C. Klatt, MD and Vinay Kumar, MBBS, MD, FRCPath
ISBN: 9780323640220
Pub Date: July 1, 2021
Reviewed By: Ivan Damjanov, MD,PhD (University of Kansas Medical Center)
Description
This is the fifth edition of the well-known book of questions and answers dealing with pathology for medical students. It serves as an ancillary companion and study guide to Robbins & Cotran Pathologic Basis of Disease, 10th Edition, Kumar et al. (Elsevier, 2020), Robbins Basic Pathology, 10th Edition, Kumar et al. (Elsevier, 2017) and Robbins & Cotran Atlas of Pathology, 4th Edition, Klatt (Elsevier, 2020).
Purpose
The purpose of the book is to help students master the complex issues of pathology by providing a systematic review of major pathology topics in the form of multiple-choice questions followed by concise answers. The authors state in the preface that “the questions are intentionally written to be fairly difficult, with the purpose of ‘pushing the envelope’ of students’ understanding of pathology.” It follows that reading this book is not an easy task because it implies a good understanding of normal physiology and anatomy, genetics, microbiology, and even some pharmacology, simulating the integrative pathology as presented on the national board examinations. In this fifth edition, the authors have updated and expanded the previous edition published in 2015. Their goals have been achieved and the objectives fully met.
Audience
The book is written primarily for preclinical first- and second-year medical students, and it will be most popular among those who are studying to take the USMLE Step 1 examination or equivalent exams for students of osteopathic medicine and nursing. It could also be used by residents in pathology, and even pathology teachers looking for good, clinically oriented pathology questions appropriate for multidisciplinary curricula. Both authors are well-known leaders of academic pathology, well known in the U.S. and abroad for their contributions to medical education and impeccable credentials.
Features
This book, like the main textbook to which it is linked, deals with general and systemic pathology, recapitulating the organization of the textbooks of the Robbins brand. It covers both general and systemic pathology in 29 chapters. The last (30th) chapter is a comprehensive final examination covering the entire pathology in 77 questions. The book contains approximately 1,500 questions, which are all presented in the form of clinical vignettes, i.e., in a format that students will encounter on the national licensing examinations, like USMLE Step 1. The topics for the questions are well chosen and thus cover the most important aspects of pathology, pathophysiology, and related sciences that are relevant to the study of pathology as an introduction to clinical medicine. As in previous editions of the book, the student reading questions will be asked to make the diagnosis by correlating the given clinical and pathologic data. The student will need to use his/her knowledge of other basic sciences to formulate the final diagnosis and thus choose the right answer from several homogeneous suggested choices. These choices contain mostly five items labeled A to E. Some of the questions have even more possible answers, reflecting the tendency of the National Boards of Medical Examiners to go beyond the five-item format. Some of the questions are related to figures, most if not all of which have been taken from the primary textbooks and the Atlas. The correct answers for each question are grouped together at the end of each chapter. In the narrative discussion of each question the authors also list reasons for the other answers being incorrect. Each of these explanations is linked to the pages of the textbooks and the Atlas to provide additional reading material to students who want to study the topics in greater detail.
Assessment
I have reviewed two of the four previous editions of this book and both times I gave them high marks. This fifth edition also deserves an A+ grade. It is a unique book with currently no competition on the textbook market. Its goal is to make good medical students even better and the students studying it can expect to find similar questions on their national qualifying exams. I am sure that those who study this book diligently and systematically will ace their exams and be ready to take on their clinical training. In my opinion, this book is as good as, if not better than, similar board-preparatory electronic material widely used currently by medical students. The authors have expanded the fifth edition with new material, much of which was not even known six years ago when the fourth edition came out. Molecular biology is prominently included together with the novel concepts of genomics, imaging, and modern clinical testing. The advances in the field of basic biomedical sciences are masterfully weaved into the proper clinical context. Pathophysiology dominates and it is the principal link between morbid anatomy and histopathology on one side and clinical medicine on the other. There is no trivia, tricks, or nonsense. I recommend it to medical students, their teachers, pathologists, as well as non-pathologists since this book is an ideal ancillary text for teachers in the multidisciplinary courses taught today in most U.S. medical schools.
©Doody’s Review Service, 2022 Ivan Damjanov, MD,PhD (University of Kansas Medical Center)
Doody’s Score: 90 – 4 Stars!
I also rate them high because of the interactive ways the authors adopted in achieving the purposes of the book