* Unique step-by-step introduction to diagnostic strategy
* Organised according to presenting symptom to aid the quick location of relevant information in the ward setting
* Covers all the general medical and surgical presentations in UK medical school curricula
* An ideal resource for helping you to deal with unfamiliar clinical problems on the wards, and to avoid misdiagnosis from relying only on pattern recognition
* Integrates knowledge of basic science, physiology, anatomy, pathology, and clinical skills
* Interactive 'workbook' format includes viva questions to prepare students for quizzing on the wards and in theatres

Case books are increasingly popular with students but most assume that the student is capable of gathering all the necessary information and making the correct diagnosis when faced with an unfamiliar clinical problem. However, even if you know how a typical 'myocardial infarction' presents, do you know how to approach a patient presenting simply with 'chest pain'?


Oxford Cases in Medicine and Surgery teaches students a hypothesis-driven, step-by-step, logical diagnostic approach to common patient presentations. This hands-on approach, which stimulates active learning, mirrors that used by successful clinicians on the wards, challenging students with questions at each stage of a case (history-taking, examination, investigation, management). In tackling these questions, students learn to integrate their existing knowledge and apply it to a real-life scenario from start to finish.


Each chapter focuses on a common presenting symptom (e.g. chest pain), rather than a physiological system (e.g. cardiology). By starting with a symptom, as doctors do in reality, students learn to draw on their knowledge of different physiological systems - for example, cardiology, respiratory, gastroenterology - at the same time.


Within each chapter, a long case walks the student through a logical method for tackling patients presenting with a given symptom. Subsequent short cases test this learning, whilst reminding students to be wary of other conditions that may present in a similar way. All the major presenting symptoms in general medicine and surgery are covered, together with a broad range of pathologies.