The Northwestern Handbook of Surgical Procedures, 2nd Edition, is designed to be reviewed prior to performing or participating in an operation. The authors of the book have identified the key steps of performing each procedure, to provide a framework to the learner for understanding the tasks and the sequence of those tasks necessary for successful performance. Breaking a complex performance like an operation into a series of steps is a technique well validated in the educational literature and provides the basic scaffold upon which the surgeon-in-training can add nuances and variations that are encountered in the course of experience, ultimately building a strong mental model or image of the operation. It is the goal of this portable handbook to try to bring some degree of order to the complexity, focusing on many of the common operations in general, gastrointestinal, plastic, thoracic, vascular and pediatric surgery, and in organ transplantation. Each procedure has been divided into specific and well-defined steps to provide the beginner with a framework that can serve as a baseline and against which real-life experiences can be measured.
