Essentials of Human Anatomy, 9th ed.

The ninth edition of this classic gross anatomy textbook continues the tradition of excellence established by earlier editions. The authors use a regional approach to the study of anatomy. The text is well organized, well written, and well illustrated. The organization of this text is so good that, in many areas, an instructor could easily lecture using the sequence presented in the book. Although the book is well written, the level of detail may be intimidating to a student taking his or her first human anatomy course. The illustrations are mainly line drawings, but many are supplemented by photographs of medical images (eg, magnetic resonance images). The majority of line drawings are helpful, but some drawings are so detailed and labeled in such small letters that individual structures and their relationships to each other can be difficult to discern. Color plates of some body regions are collected into two groups, but the plates probably would be more helpful if they were located close to descriptions of structures that they illustrate. The clinical correlations are helpful.

In the preface, the authors describe changes in this new edition, including an expanded overview of central nervous system anatomy, an improved section on human embryology, a short section on medical terminology, and additional descriptions of medical imaging techniques. The sections on central nervous system anatomy and human embryology are meant to help students who previously have not studied neuroanatomy and embryology, respectively. The majority of illustrations in the embryology section are line drawings from Human Embryology by BM Patten (3rd ed, 1968, McGraw-Hill Book Co). These classic illustrations probably will prove helpful to students who already have had an introduction to embryology, but they may be difficult to understand for students lacking an embryology background. An additional criticism is that the list of "Selected References" still contains few recent references.

Despite the minor problems mentioned above, the ninth edition of this text is an excellent gross anatomy textbook. it should be a useful addition to any physical therapist's professional library.