Book excerpt: Pocket-size, user-friendly roadmap to learning the basic skills of orthopaedic surgery! Surgery requires a combination of knowledge and skill acquired through years of direct observation, mentorship, and practice. The learning curve can be steep, frustrating, and intimidating for many medical students and junior residents. Too often, books and texts that attempt to translate the art of surgery are far too comprehensive for this audience and counterproductive to learning important basic skills to succeed. Outlines in Orthopaedic Surgery by Valentin Antoci and Adam Eltorai is the orthopaedic volume in a series of textbooks that offer a simplified roadmap to surgery. The text serves as starting point for learning orthopaedic surgery techniques, with room for adding notes, details, and pearls collected during the journey. This unique resource outlines key steps for common orthopaedic procedures, laying a solid foundation of basic knowledge from which trainees can easily build and expand. Thirty-five chapters are systematically organized and formatted by subspecialty, starting with an introduction, followed by sections covering surgery of the hand, shoulder and elbow, joint arthroplasty, sports orthopaedics, spine surgery, orthopaedic trauma, foot and ankle, and pediatrics. Each chapter includes symptoms and signs, surgical pathology, diagnostic modalities, differential diagnosis, treatment options, indications for surgical intervention, step-by-step procedures, pitfalls, and prognosis. Key Features Concise text and bullets provide quick procedural outlines essential for understanding procedural steps The generously illustrated text encompasses a full spectrum of musculoskeletal disorders related to degenerative changes, injuries, and congenital conditions Treatment of a variety of fractures including both bones of the forearm, Monteggia and olecranon, lateral malleolus/bimalleolar ankle, and supracondylar humeral and intramedullary fixation of forearm fractures in pediatric patients This is an ideal, easy-to-read resource for medical students and junior residents to utilize during orthopaedic surgery rotations and for quick consultation during the early years of practice. It will also benefit allied health professionals who need a quick guide on core orthopaedic surgery procedures.