Lookingbill and Marks’ Principles of Dermatology, 7th Edition

By: James G. Marks & Jeffrey J. Miller & L. Claire Hollins

ISBN: 9780323934244

Publication Date: July 7, 2024

Reviewer: Patricia Wong, MD (Private Practice)

Description

It is difficult to choose a beginner’s guide to dermatology because often the experts do not distill the knowledge in a way that is accessible. While they are often great authorities on the subject, this doesn’t necessarily translate into being wonderful educators. This book accomplishes what it promises. The previous edition was published in 2019.

Purpose

The purpose of this book is to teach the fundamentals of dermatology in a logical, memorable way so that non-dermatologists can generate working, reasonable diagnoses and devise appropriate treatments that are in the realm of acceptance.

Audience

The audience of the book is non-dermatologists including medical students, beginning dermatology residents, and primary care physicians.

Features

The book is categorized into sections named as non-dermatologists would think about skin problems: red rash, pustules, blisters, bumps, or scaly rash. A diagnostic branching map describes ways to think about the possible causes and groups the possible diagnoses into major classes: i.e., are patients clinically ill or do they look fine, is the dermatitis well defined or not, scaly or not, presence or absence of pustules. The quality of the clinical color illustrations is excellent and demonstrates what the text describes. Shaded boxes scattered throughout the book highlight key points. This helps emphasize the most important take-away messages. Tables summarize treatments, and the book states recommended doses.

Assessment

This is a valuable reference for medical professionals seeking to dip their toes into dermatology. The teaching format is well thought out. The digital version allows you to highlight passages in multiple colors and will even read the book aloud to you. It carefully includes different skin pigmentation types for illustrating how the same dermatitis presents but can appear as a distinctly diverse entity to the non-dermatologic eyeball.

©Doody’s Review Service, 2025, Patricia Wong, MD (Private Practice), Doody’s Score: 100 – 5 Stars!

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