Robbins & Cotran Pathologic Basis of Disease (Robbins Pathology) 9th Edition

(Updated for perspective as a now-second year medical student)As a first year medical student, I have found Robbins a wonderful textbook for fundamentals of disease processes as well as pathology of the organ systems. (And this is coming from someone who has found medical textbooks too dense and dry to use as primary resources for courses so far. )Robbins is the "required" pathology textbook at my medical school; I say "required" because every year, class surveys indicate almost no one uses the book, relying instead on course notes and review books. At the urging of my old-school trained father, I decided to buck the trend — and having read multiple chapters of the Robbins, I am shocked that past classes have foregone the text. For one, this is a very well organized book — in fact, it is better organized than our course note packets/syllabi. The figures and tables are high-yield, but the text itself is so well written and full of useful information and examples that I have never felt exhausted reading through it. Because of this, I think Robbins is a practical primary resource to learn MS-1 and MS-2 material. (I would not say the same for similarly massive textbooks "required" for our other courses so far, like Goodman and Gilman's for pharmacology. I found that and other texts so dense and dry that I've only used them as references in the library, and even then only rarely. Instead, like most med students these days, I often turn to review books to clarify concepts that are confusing in lecture.)So what have I gained by reading this thing? I've noticed that my understanding of disease features has increased substantially. The basic pathological processes covered in Robbins are common to so many diseases that cases presented in grand rounds I attend, as well as clinical asides during lectures, make much more sense. Even when I don't understand them, I can at least grasp explanations I look up because the basics always come up.Here I will list the "fundamentals" chapters I have read and found useful.• Chapter 1 is an overview of cell biology, setting the stage for the rest of the book. I bought this book after finishing my cell biology course, so I largely skipped this chapter. However, it would probably be a great way to gain a basic understanding of cellular mechanisms if you have less background in cell biology, or even as a resource during a cell biology course.• Chapter 2 covers cell injury and death. Apoptosis and necrosis are the focuses of the chapter, and the discussion is quite detailed. The basic paths leading to cell injury and death are critical to understanding much of the rest of the book and diseases in general. Great reference or primary source.• Chapter 3 gets into more core disease processes: inflammation and repair. Again, excellent text and summary tables/figures. From my perspective as an MS-1, probably one of the most useful chapters as far as laying down important fundamentals.• Chapter 4 is a little more narrowed, discussing hemodynamics, thrombosis, and infarction. These topics come up all the time (MI, stroke, emboli...), so it's satisfying to understand the material. And despite the complexity of the chapter (coagulation is complicated), it's still quite readable.Some other great chapters cover immunology, infection, neoplasia, genetic disorders, and vascular disorders (that chapter leads right into the heart pathology chapter). All of them are useful, although I would say they need not be read all the way through like the fundamentals chapters. For example, I have some cancer biology background, so I read selected portions of the neoplasia chapter. Same goes if you have background in immuno, microbio, etc. Together, they give a strong foundation for understanding specific diseases.Overall, highly recommended for use as a primary resource or reference text during the preclinical years.Update: Our exam for the pathology course was an NBME shelf exam. With the help of Robbins, I aced it with a 94%, beating the class mean by over 1.5 standard deviations. Seriously, the foundations and understanding of disease mechanism you gain from this book are worth your time.Update 2: Thoughts now that I'm a second-year. Robbins is still excellent, and I still consider it the definitive authority when other resources seem to disagree with each other. If you have the time, reading Robbins will expose you to a wider range of pathology than you'll learn about in your organ systems courses. I mean, there's a lot of pathology out there, and med school curricula really can't spend time on all of it. If you have a particular area of interest or feel your course isn't giving a good representation of a certain system's pathologies, crack open Robbins and enlighten yourself. The downside is that using Robbins for every organ system is nigh-impossible. This is a behemoth text, and in the midst of frantically speeding through organ systems while also stressing about retaining high-yield material for the boards, it might fall lower on your priorities list vs. stripped down review resources like Pathoma. It is a textbook, after all.I used Robbins early in the year but found myself using it less over time as our courses became shorter (physiology-heavy courses like cardiology afforded enough time; 2-3 week courses in some other subjects were way too rapid-fire to allow for it). A couple of my classmates continue to doggedly read through each chapter, although sometimes this can become a little martyr-ish (check out the 150+ page gastrointestinal/hepatobiliary segment). I'd suggest using it as time allows, then just using it as a reference as needed. Curating resources is critical in medical school considering the firehose of information and similar stacks of books available.

I will make this simple and to the point for pretty much everyone who will be looking at this book:For Residents/Attendees: This is an AMAZING book as a supplement to high yield information. This book goes into far too much detail for board/entrance/license examinations. However, I would keep it near by as it helps fill in the gaps left behind in other High Yield Books.For Medical Students: Excellent book for the start of second year pathology. However, it is a tremendous amount of information and not everything is high yield for step 1. What is super important about this book is that the illustrations, graphs, and tables are actually extremely HIGH YIELD. The book's graphic team did an amazing job of conveying the information needed to understand pathology. Use as a supplement to your other study materials. You will not be disappointed.For Undergraduates: If you are taking introductory pathology as a senior and are looking for a book, then this may not be the one for you. The reason: the book is very dense with medical specific words and clinical correlations that may not be suited for someone just starting out in pathology. You have to a firm grasp on immunology, genetics, basic anatomy, histology, etc prior to opening this book. Also, they discuss pharmacology, have clinical cases, and USMLE style questions. Id recommend Robbin's Basic Pathology or another Basic Pathology book highly rated on Amazon. Although this is an amazing book, its content may not be tailored to undergraduate pathology courses.For Professors: Excellent textbook to help supplement your lectures. In fact, this book is written so well, that you can actually base your entire lecture off of it. They have excellent tables and graphs that can be used for PPT. The sentence structure and Pathology buzz words are used perfectly. The book also does as excellent job of tying in relevant tangents to the chapters which gives it a systems biology feel.Overall Just an amazing book.

Only a few corner dings as noted in the listing. Book itself in great condition and perfect for studying! Shipped incredibly fast as well!

Robbins and Cotran Pathologic Basic of Disease is great. It explains in clear language a lot of clinically relevant physiology as well as a ton of pathology ("abnormal processes" comprise 55-60% of Step 1, according to the USMLE's website). I think it is the key textbook for the first 2 years of medical school, and it is worth buying at the beginning and referencing throughout. It will explain a lot of basic terms that you'll encounter in lectures, in clinical experiences, and in other texts that will otherwise go over your head. The newest (9th) edition is very well formatted and is easy to read.

The book arrived in perfect condition. I purchased this book purely for my library after already completing the first two years of medical school. In retrospect, I sincerely wish I would have read this during MS2, as this would have made learning pathophysiology much easier. The book has very nice, straightforward explanations of common disease processes, and appropriate high-quality pictures. However, looking forward to residency and beyond, I can't say this book will be that useful. The explanations are fairly superficial and not deep or current enough to inform my decision making as a clinician.

Extremely detailed and very informative about the pathophysiology of disease with full color pictures to help bring diseases to life. The description and summary boxes are extremely helpful for putting things together and really understanding the differences between diseases, such as Crohn's vs. Ulcerative Colitis. I found this textbook way more helpful than other patho books I have used in nursing school.