Book excerpt: Improve your imaging interpretation skills for the most commonly encountered surgical conditions The goals of Acute Care Surgery: Imaging Essentials for Rapid Diagnosis is help acute care surgeons, general surgeons, and surgical trainees develop the skills necessary to efficiently work up and diagnose critical surgical disease. This unique text opens with practical guidelines for understanding and interpreting the key imaging modalities employed in acute care surgery. In-depth discussions of acute surgical conditions follow, with emphasis on workup, diagnosis, and imaging pattern recognition. Each clinical chapter opens with a case scenario, followed by detailed discussion of pathophysiology, diagnosis, and management, and includes multiple annotated examples of ultrasound, plain film, CT, and MRI findings. Acute Care Surgery: Imaging Essentials for Rapid Diagnosis follows a logical systems-based organization, consisting of: Radiology Basics Abdomen Chest Soft Tissue Trauma Acute Care Surgery: Imaging Essentials for Rapid Diagnosis also provides expert guidance on how to select the correct imaging modality for the most efficient diagnosis and treatment. This text will aid trainees and surgeons to hone the skills they need to manage acute surgical patients when expediency matters most.