Physician-informed medical book reviews and clinical education resources.
“Dermatology for the USMLE (2017) is a concise 150-page resource focused on essential buzzwords and images for the USMLE and similar tests. While it’s not a comprehensive dermatology textbook and lacks in-depth clinical discussions, it’s highly recommended for exam preparation and as a reference for medical writers and editors.”
Color Textbook of Pediatric Dermatology (2007) would ordinarily lie on the margins of the spectrum of books that I’d consider review-worthy: it’s approximately 400 pages long, has multiple authors and is, well, a textbook. Longer, multiple-author textbooks tend to fall apart conceptually at about 400 pages in length. This book, however, holds things together very … Read more
Step 1: First of all, make sure it’s really atopic dermatitis! Atopic dermatitis is a pruritic, immune-mediated skin condition that is common in all age groups, but is particularly common among infants, toddlers and small children. It is commonly called eczema by clinicians and laypersons alike. There are three different highly pruritic skin conditions that … Read more
You can become good to excellent at dermatology with the aid of no more than three books: Andrews’ Diseases of the Skin: Clinical Dermatology, 11e (2011): this book is king when it comes to a profoundly medicine-based understanding of dermatology. I seldom, if ever, recommend textbooks – and this one is more than 1210 pages … Read more
Here are some questions that you should ask (or at least think about!) when evaluating patients with hand infections to help make sure that you don’t miss anything big. Other than this pain, redness, swelling here (etc.), did you hurt your hand in any way? This is perhaps better than asking “Did you punch anyone?” … Read more
The differential diagnosis for angioedema without urticaria (“hives”) is fairly narrow, and requires a unique workup and management strategy. Clinical presentation Patients present with sudden, profound, non-erythematous, non-pruritic localized edema of distensible tissues such as lips, eyelids, tongue and external genitalia. The key here is that they are negative for hives, itching, or bronchospasms. Two … Read more
The main systemic causes of itching are: Cholestasis Uremia Pregnancy-related problems Lymphoproliferative (especially systemic mastocytosis) and hematopoietic disorders, including iron deficiency anemia Endocrinal problems such as hypothyroidism and diabetes mellitus Drug side effects, such as opioids and drugs which cause cholestasis. Allergic reactions Therefore, in the absence of primary skin findings, a basic workup for itching might … Read more