Otolaryngology Rotation: Recommended Books

[Guest Ian Wong]

Here's just some recommendations for both textbooks and ward books based on my experiences in this rotation. I don't claim to know what's best, but this is what I used for this rotation.

 

Recommended books for ENT/Otolaryngology:

 

In your white coat pocket:

1) Tarascon Pharmacopeia

2) Maxwell's Quick Medical Reference

3) Sanford's Guide to Anti-Microbial Therapy

4) Essentials of Otolaryngology ISBN: 0-7817-1463-x

 

In your bag so you can read up in the clinic between patients (if you're an ENT nut like myself)

5) ENT Secrets ISBN: 1-56053-159-2

 

Tarascon, Maxwell's, and Sanford's should be de facto members of your white coat until you graduate med school, and probably still after that. Essentials of Otolaryngology is a GREAT pocket book that provides a really good review of common ENT problems. It is detailed enough that it is less like a pocket book, than a textbook that has been squished into a pocket book size.

 

ENT Secrets is even more detailed than Essentials of Otolaryngology, and should be a mandatory purchase, like Essentials, if you are considering ENT as a career. It's not worth purchasing however, if you are not.

 

The major goal you should get out of Otolaryngology is the ability to assess patients in the clinic. Something like 30-40% of all family doctor visits are for concerns that are related to ENT in some fashion: colds, asthma, ear infections, dizziness, sinus disease, reflux disease, hearing complaints, +/- headaches, thyroid problems, etc. Developing a good history and physical approach to managing these problems will hopefully give you the skills to manage these patients, and to realise when you are in over your head and need to refer onwards. Learn how to do a good cranial nerve exam.

 

ENT isn't well represented in the UBC med curriculum, and it probably isn't in many other medical schools either. The majority of my class will graduate without having spent a single day on the ENT service. For this reason, I think if you are considering family medicine, and you don't have full confidence in your head and neck exam and management skills, that purchasing Essentials of Otolaryngology could be worthwhile. Otherwise, since your rotation in ENT is likely to be short, you could just check it out of the library. Either way, I think it'll be of great benefit during your actual rotation.

 

Another important skill that could save a patient's life in the future, is knowing a good approach to a patient with a neck mass. Although you are likely to refer the majority of these people onwards to an otolaryngologist-head and neck surgeon (these guys are the cancer surgeons of the head and neck), having an approach to these complaints will really help your patient's peace of mind.

 

Ian

UBC, Med 4

[Guest Ian Wong]

Floating back to the top...

 

Ian