This text presents a succinct account of current surgical practice and general operative surgery, useful for medical students, housemen, and junior surgical trainees. Each topic is dealt with in a single page with alternate pages left blank to accommodate notes. There are sections on anatomy and general, plastic, vascular, paediatric, endocrine, and orthopaedic surgery. Sections on practical procedures and operative surgical techniques are included with illustrations to provide detail of and ready reference to the more commonly used form of techniques and procedures. In addition, aspects of surgical philosophy, ethics, and the surgeon and the law are discussed. Important subjects like surgery and the Pill, stopping smoking before surgery, and surgery and myocardial infarction are discussed. These are not the traditional fare of most surgical texts but are essential knowledge for surgeons in the the perioperative care of their patients.