Book excerpt: Now in its revised Second Edition, Essentials of Surgical Specialties provides students with the essentials necessary to help students learn and, most importantly, retain the clinical foundations in surgical specialties. Designed to meet the needs of third- and fourth-year medical students going through surgery rotations, the Second Edition provides authoritative coverage on the basics and focuses on problems students may face during their clerkship. Organized by specialty, each chapter provides the basic skills needed in each of the nine core rotations and ends with a set of study questions relating to the topic at hand. Numerous references are included throughout the text for those wishing to explore a topic in-depth.