I will go ahead and be completely candid and truthful with my review on this book. This I know will go very unfavorable with everyone out there and the universal notion that this is the greatest book to ever come out on Dermatology. I'll be the leper of that group.
The book, which covers the major aspects of most if not every dermatological disease is very thorough in scope though extremely and poorly organized. This is the downfall of this book which for completion purposes just scans over the major point in an extremely wide part of medicine, Dermatology. You have the book mention something in passing and then for no reason in a later section would go back to what it covered with more details. I have no idea why that happens a lot in this book. I admit there are excellent chapters out there, but their poor organization and lack of reasonable trend just puts the book off. The book may have the right wording and the ease in language, but simply fails to put things together in a coherent way. Another major problem is that the book's pictures are B&W. In a time where color images are ubiquituous, this is not acceptable. A lot of people I know have mentioned these negative features, though they still like the book because it's the only book out there that they can carry around and still look through between clinics or grand rounds.
I believe that for residents out there, that books like Ftizpatrick, the critically-acclaimed Bolognia and the bible Rook should be required reading for all residents to build the basis of sound, strong and a lasting base for their Dermatology education. Andrew's could be used for a fast quick reference, but not the one that should be counted on making life and death decisions in dermatological care. Andrew's is good, but not that great and certainly not even closest to being the best.
