19^th edition (Published May 2016)

Kapser, Fauci, Hauser, Longo, Jameson and Loscalzo

Published by McGraw Hill Education

ISBN 978-0-07-182852-9

http://www.mheducation.co.uk/harrisons-manual-of-medicine

Price £71.20

Without doubt this excellent, compact and useful book deserves the accolade of being a little brother (or sister) to the highly recommended 19^th edition of Harrison’s Principles of Internal Medicine which is the current edition. The main two volume edition of Harrison’s is well established and the manual itself is also in the 19^th edition and not surprisingly works very well with its big brother/sister. Although described as a manual and it is fairly compact, it comes in at just over 1200 pages and contains a significant amount of general medicine data and information which makes it very useful in its own right.

I suspect it is mainly meant to be used as a frontline tool, when you need information rapidly when you are dealing with a patient or you need to quickly refresh a topic. As a good general medical textbook, it is also very useful because it contains essential information when reading around a topic especially if time is tight which is often the case. Of course when more detailed information or data is needed on a specific topic, then you could go to the larger Harrison’s textbook which is a 2 volume affair. However this book (Harrison’s manual) can easily be used on its own as a standalone product and you do not need the larger Harrison’s as an essential companion (though it would be nice to have). Its British equivalent would probably be the Oxford Handbook of Clinical Medicine although Harrison’s Manual is not necessarily pocket size, it can be handily kept on a desk or a clinical workstation and so easily accessible.

It is well written and contains basic brief but more than sufficient information to quickly cover a topic. This makes it simple and effective enough to dip in and out for either personal memory refreshment or to help quickly solve a patient problem. For more comprehensive information you could go to Harrison’s Principles of Internal Medicine itself and it has been reviewed elsewhere on Glycosmedia see https://www.glycosmedia.com/harrisons-principles-of-internal-medicine/

Harrison’s manual is easy to read, information packed and yet proportion wise, it does not take up that much room. Working in tandem with its big brother/sister, the 19^th edition of Harrison’s Principles of Internal Medicine, the duo make a great combination.

Dr Harry Brown

July 2017