Top Knife: The Art and Craft of Trauma Surgery Paperback – October 1, 2004

I was recently reminded of this book during an online discussion about surgical texts. My residency program was not heavy on penetrating trauma so I purchased Top Knife a few years ago as a "How To" guide for the oral boards. I could not have been more pleased with that decision.Top Knife is succinct yet detailed, timely yet timeless and dare I say it, funny! Several times throughout the book the authors will state something to the effect of. "The books tell you to do X; we have never been able to get X to work. If you can, please share your secret with us!" Maybe I'm easily amused but those passages made me laugh out loud as most books are filled with impractical advice that would never work outside of BMS or some other rarified theatre.We now recommend this to our residents as reading for their trauma rotation and board exams. It's that good.

Basic science and ABSITE knowledge is one thing. Which frankly is relatively easy to achieve if you are good at self-study. The wisdom and operative pearls shared shared by these masters, gained through incredibly vast experience, is something totally different. It is almost like cheating to have this book compared to those who don't.Only objection is that it is a bit old (2004) and some things have changed... like the emergence of better IR and endovascular techniques. And it is not intended to be a detailed technical reference. But the Yoda-like wisdom remains. Not only for trauma surgeons but all acute care or general surgeons.I never even write reviews. It is that good.

For any Surgery resident, this book is a life saver and an absolute must-have.The book explains, trauma surgery in a concise no-nonsense format. Written by two masters in Trauma Surgery, the book is what I call "distilled wisdom".It gives you what to do, what not to do, and with out the pages of data that other larger textbooks include. And even though it may be hard to believe, all the answers are in the book.I found this book during my first year of Residency, and since then, have made sure all my younger residents have bought a copy and read it.Another book similar to this jewel is Schein's Common Sense Emergency Abdominal Surgery: An Unconventional Book for Trainees and Thinking Surgeons. I recommend both to every resident I can.

Great information and a great read. I like the writing style , sort of how a smarter colleague might instruct you. The authors have the thoracic inlet mixed up with the thoracic outlet and it made tough for me to figure out what the heck they were talking about until I figured they got it backwards. Please, please fix it on the next edition. The thoracic inlet is the little hole at the top of the chest and the thoracic outlet is the big hole at the bottom of the chest

I lost my first copy and had to get another(I personally think someone stole it when they saw how great it was!) This is the book to get for the no-nonsense guide to trauma surgery. It tells you to use your team and common sense to ensure that you have success much more often then failure. At one point they say the best thing to do after you have stopped the bleeding is to STOP!( it's capitalized in the book too!) They say too many problems stem from people diving head-long into fixing it without taking the time to see the big picture."Stop to organize and optimize your attack". I must tell you though I am only an EMT, not a trauma surgeon, but the book makes for some great information to know,

This book was indescribably helpful while I was a general surgery resident and an Army surgeon deployed to Afghanistan. It rivals Carol Scott-Connor's book 'Chassin's Operative Surgery' as my favorite surgery book. This book boils down complex maneuvers and trauma mind frame into a delivery that is accessible to everyone. Drs Maddox and Asher chose to share their unparalleled experience with the rest of us, and I am every grateful. Highly recommend this book for all surgeons, because you think you may not be in the position to deal with some of these emergencies... But you know how life can be.

the title says all you really need to know. This book presents a logical and often comical approach to the surgical trauma patient. While some parts may be outdated or controversial in our age of ebm, the core components of how to approach a crashing patient who has suffered penetrating trauma have not changed. This book was clearly written by a Trauma surgeon for surgeons. It is my favorite medical book and i wish that this style of writing was more common as it makes for a quick and memorable read.

How can you not love this book? It's trauma surgery made simple. Mind you however, it will only give you the mental framework needed to approach tauma intra-operatively. It does not provide enough surgical details to suffice as an operative manual.