Oxford Textbook of Functional Anatomy

Citation

MacKinnon, P. C. B., & Morris, J. F. (2005). Oxford Textbook of Functional Anatomy (2nd ed., 3 vols.). Oxford University Press.

Chapter Summary

Scope and Approach

The second edition of this textbook was issued in 2005 as three separate paperback volumes: Volume 1, Musculo-skeletal System; Volume 2, Thorax and Abdomen; and Volume 3, Head and Neck. Each volume runs to roughly 225 to 245 pages. The series first appeared in 1986 as both a textbook and a dissection manual, and a revised edition followed in 1994. The authors' premise is that a sound understanding of how the body is built and how it functions remains fundamental to medicine, including the interpretation of images from modern non-invasive imaging, and that most diagnoses depend on an examination of the intact living body. The title's word "functional" reflects that emphasis: structure is described for what it does and for how it is examined.

What Changed in the Second Edition

The second edition responds to changes in the medical curriculum. The authors paid attention to whether each item of information helps in understanding the principles of body structure or is useful in everyday clinical practice. As a result, guidance on dissection, and the origins and insertions of individual muscles, on which students had spent a disproportionate amount of time, was largely removed from the text and indicated instead on the relevant illustrations. The emphasis on the anatomy of the living subject was increased.

Illustration and Imaging

A mixture of drawings, radiographs and clinical photographs illustrates the volumes, and the second edition adds many computerised tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) images. Many are merged into the text, with separate subsections that present them in an ordered sequence. A Times Higher Education review singled out the pencil drawings of bones as an example of high-quality medical artistry.

Clinical Significance

Clinical relevance is stressed more than in earlier editions. The same review gives an example: instead of simply showing the cruciate ligaments of the knee, the book shows how to test them. A simplified account of embryology is retained, and each chapter ends with questions for self-assessment.

The Three Volumes

The musculo-skeletal volume treats the framework and movements of the body, the thorax and abdomen volume the trunk, and the head and neck volume the region named in its title. Each volume has an introductory chapter, and a reviewer noted that these introductions are very similar from volume to volume.

Key Concepts

Topic Areas Named in the Book's Scope

• Functional anatomy: structure explained through what it does and how it is examined.
• Anatomy of the living subject: the body as seen in clinical examination and imaging, rather than only on the dissection table.
• Imaging anatomy: CT and MRI images integrated with the text.
• Clinical significance: tests and findings that follow from the structure.
• Simplified embryology: a short developmental account to explain adult structure.
• Self-assessment: questions at the end of each chapter.

Critical Analysis

Strengths

• Function and clinical use in front. The 2005 edition connects structure to examination and testing, which helps students who find a list of structures unproductive.
• Strong illustration. The reviewer in Times Higher Education praised the quality of the drawings, radiographs and clinical photographs, and welcomed the abundance of good CT and MRI images.
• Compact volumes. At about 225 to 245 pages each, the volumes can be taken to a laboratory or studied in turn alongside regional teaching.
• A recommendation from a teacher. The same reviewer recommended the book to students and expected it to succeed in its new format.

Limitations

• Errors noticed by a reviewer. The reviewer observed that the section on prolapsed discs omits the point that it is the next nerve root down that is compressed in the lumbar region, and that the discussion of eye movements does not cover torsion of the eyeball. These are examples of topics worth checking against other sources.
• Repetition across volumes. The introductory chapters are very similar across the three volumes, which the reviewer doubted was needed in every volume.
• Dissection guidance removed. Because the second edition dropped its dissection emphasis and the detail of muscle origins and insertions, students who want those details will need an atlas or dissection manual.
• Age. The edition dates from 2005, so newer imaging and clinical practice are not included.

Where It Fits in the Course

In the anatomy course, this set is a functional and clinically oriented text, shorter than the comprehensive references. Drake, Vogl and Mitchell's Gray's Anatomy for Students presents each region through a conceptual overview, regional anatomy and surface anatomy, and Dalley and Agur's Moore's Clinically Oriented Anatomy pairs detailed regional descriptions with the clinical reasoning that depends on them. Ellis and Mahadevan's Clinical Anatomy is a concise region-by-region account concentrating on the anatomy that students use on the wards and in examinations. Standring and Tubbs' Gray's Anatomy: The Anatomical Basis of Clinical Practice is the long-established reference work, and Stephens, Munro and O'Rourke's Crash Course Anatomy and Physiology is a compact first review.

The Oxford set is a good complement to those books for students who want the functional explanation of how structures work and how they are tested.

How to Use This Book

It suits medical students in a first anatomy course and students of physiotherapy, radiography and related programmes who need anatomy explained through what structures do. Introductory biology is enough background, and basic physiology helps with the functional explanations.

A practical plan:

• Choose the volume that matches your course block. Take the musculo-skeletal, thorax and abdomen, or head and neck volume as the corresponding teaching begins.
• Read before the practical class. Use the text to frame questions: what does this structure do, how is it tested, and what happens when it is damaged?
• Study the imaging. Work through the CT and MRI subsections to practise recognising structures on images.
• Keep an atlas beside you. Use an atlas for the detail of muscle origins and insertions and for identification.
• Use the end-of-chapter questions. Answer them for self-assessment, and recheck points that the volumes treat briefly against another text.