Neuroanatomy (Blumenfeld,Neuroanatomy through Clinical Cases)

The initial chapters include an introduction to clinical case presentation, an overview of the nervous system and its terminology, as well as a demonstration of the neurologic exam. A well-illustrated section on brain imaging techniques follows, which is extremely up to date and includes CT, MRI, angiography and functional neuroimaging.The rest of the book is logically organized into chapters which all start with an anatomical and clinical review. These are followed by the description of relevant clinical cases where the readers can immediately apply their freshly acquired knowledge to establish a diagnosis, while learning important elements of clinical management for various neurological conditions.

Clear illustrations, pictures of anatomical specimens, summary tables, review exercises and mnemonics will help funnel all this information for long term storage straight into the hippocampus. Throughout the chapters, the book never loses its focus which is to link structure to function, to demonstrate how to test this function by the neurological exam and to provide relevant clinical examples of function disruption. This unique book should appeal to all medical students and residents learning Neuroanatomy and their teachers. Those in the field who need a refresher will rediscover functional Neuroanatomy as it should have been taught.


Neuroanatomy Brought to Life   January 2, 2002
Joshua Brumberg (New York, NY United States)
18 out of 19 found this review helpful

When teaching Neuroanatomy to medical students one is often confronted by a classroom of students with their eyes glazed over. This book is a remedy for this situation. Instead of learning Neuroanatomy via rote memorization, this exciting subject is brought to life through real world examples. In each section the anatomy and physiology are integrated with actual clinical cases that Dr. Blumenfeld has encountered during his clinical training. No longer will medical students wonder "Why do I need to know this?" because in every instance there are clinical cases that show the relevance of Neuroanatomy. For example this integrated approach is evidenced in the explanation of the visual system; from the transduction events in the retina and the subsequent passage of information thought the thalamus to the cortex and then how lesions at different levels of this system can result in dramatically different pathologies. As science has advanced and the genetic basis of diseases become known it was refreshing to see this material also touched upon in this volume.

The cases are presented in two forms, short vignettes and longer treatments that allow the reader to hypothesize what the ailment is by analyzing the results from the physical and neurological exam, the lab results and the imaging studies. Prospective medical students will find this format a welcome departure to previous treatments of Neuroanatomy which typically relegate clinical relevance to a few paragraphs at the end of each chapter. The book is well illustrated and covers all the necessary subject matter and is supplemented by a helpful web site (neuroexam.com) where the neurological exam is demonstrated using streaming videos. The book is well written and contains useful mnemonics to aid in the memorization of crucial details. Despite the emphasis on clinical relevance the book does not short change when it comes to detailing the pathways and functional segregation of the nervous system. This book brings a fresh new look at a classical subject, and will be a great aid to both medical students learning Neuroanatomy for the first time and those students of the field who need a brief review.