Clemente's Anatomy Flash Cards

Author: Thomas R. Gest, Ph. D.

Publisher: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, 2007

2007; 328 cards; $36.95

This flash card set of Clemente’s Anatomy: A Regional Atlas of the Human Body, 5th Edition contains 318 images, mostly illustrations and a few radiographs. There are 62 cards for Pectoral Region and Upper Extremity; 44 for Thorax; 38 for the Abdomen; 22 for Pelvis and Perineum; 23 for Back, Vertebral Column, and Spinal Cord; 58 for Lower Extremity; and 71 for Neck and Head. Each card has an illustration on one side with leader lines going from the structures to numbers off the illustration. On the reverse, the structure is identified for each number and information relevant to the structure is described. Each section has an index card.

The author has done a very good job listing the relevant information for each structure. The description of muscles includes their action and innervation, and that for the nerves includes its source and structures that it innervates. For arteries, the description contains the source and structures or areas supplied, whereas the description for the veins and lymphatics has the areas or structures drained and where it drains. The card set does have some radiographs and cross sectional illustrations, which are clinically relevant.

Clemente’s Anatomy Flash Cards are essentially a beautiful and wonderfully drawn atlas in a box and a way for the publishing company to provide another method for students to learn. However, learning comes from actively using the atlas and discovering the structures on a cadaver, however presented. These flash cards should only be used for review and not as a crutch for truly learning the material required in an anatomy course. Students should also be aware that instructors may emphasize certain structures and information that is different from that included in a set of flash cards. Additional words of caution are required, since illustrations are reductions of the actual drawings in the atlas and some of these may lose their detail when reduced.

The cost of Clemente’s Anatomy Flash Cards is reasonable compared to its competitors and would provide another review tool for a student’s study of human gross anatomy. The author should be commended for creating a tool that is succinct and meets the basic requirements for reviewing human gross anatomy.

Reviewer: Geoffrey D. Guttmann, Visiting Associate Professor, Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology, University of Kentucky College of Medicine

Review Date: September 2007