One of the biggest deficiencies in most medical school education curricula has been the lack of emphasis on the musculoskeletal system. Unfortunately, this also carries over into the residency programs in pediatrics and family practice. It is no wonder that these physicians not only feel uncomfortable when faced with musculoskeletal problems of which they have only cursory knowledge, but also lack the knowledge of how to examine adequately the back and extremities.
It is with this information gap in mind that Dr Scoles has written a very timely, practical guide to common musculoskeletal disorders for not only the family practitioner and the pediatrician but those in training. Much to his credit, it is not a comprehensive, exhaustive basic textbook that suffers from subspecialty jargon, too numerous references, or multiple surgical details. These have been eliminated, and so it is a very readable publication well documented with photographs of patients, line