Color Atlas of Anatomy: A Photographic Study of the Human Body

The Color Atlas of Anatomy does a fantastic job of helping one translate the color drawings from the big anatomy textbooks into the lab by providing high-quality labelled photos of model dissections by expert anatomists. Think you have the hypogastric nerve in your abdomenal wall but aren't too sure what it's supposed to look like? My partner and I were in just that position and the Color Atlas helped us go from the idealized material of our lecture notes and Netter's Atlas to realities of our cadaver.

In addition to the photos, I found the schematic drawings to be a nice way to keep in mind the general organization of basic membranes and organs in the body, and the MR and X-Ray scans were useful as well in learning how to read radiograms and MRI images. This book does a great job of teaching you what anatomic specimens really look like, and help you appreciate the great beauty and elegance of the human body.


Anatomy Lab on the top of your desk; virtual home dissection   March 21, 2001
24 out of 24 found this review helpful

I am a medical student from Texas A&M USHSC COM and this is the most valuable book I have owned thus far. This masterpiece of photographic wizardry accurately depicts the in-depth dissection of the human body with extreme clarity. The best way to use this atlas is in conjunction with your anatomy text (like Moore) and along with a color illustrated atlas (like Netter). However, I also suggest that medical students use Rohen to graphically dissect, using their dissector (like Grant's) and class handouts, every night before lab. You will find that you are a master of the material and your in-lab dissection will be one of the best. This process yielded excellent results, including a 1/4 reduction in overall lab time. Anatomy is still one of the most important subjects. Even in the clinical years, those students with a unique grasp of this subject will surpass their peers. This book is a worthy investment for all medical students.


I really liked it, but it's not indispensible   May 13, 2005
ISaidThat (USA)
24 out of 25 found this review helpful

I bought this book to help me in a first year medical school gross anatomy course. While it's not where you want to start when learning anatomy, it's both helpful, as well as reassuring, to be able to see high quality full-color photographs of structures that you've only seen in textbook illustrations, or in a diagrammatic atlas. One good use of this book is for looking up structures that you're just not understanding, even though you may have seen a dozen illustrated renditions of them.

The two best uses that I found for this atlas were: 1. generating my own more-realistic/less-diagrammatic illustrations when studying, and 2. SELF-TESTING before a laboratory practical exam.

A problem with Rohen and Yokochi is that, because not all anatomical structures can be clearly photographed, it's not as comprehensive as Netter's Atlas is, and many a structure that you might wish to look up won't be in it, so keep a good textbook (I recommend Moore and Dailey's Clinically Oriented Anatomy) and an illustrated atlas around (most people like Netter's), as well. Also, it is quite possible to identify more structures than are labelled in many of the photographs in this book.

In summary, this book is a nice tool to have around, but if you're determined to cut costs, this is the study aid to skip in a gross anatomy course, and the last one to consult when learning new structures.

A warning: be careful about leaving it open where those who aren't anatomy students might see it. Many of the photographs are potentially disturbing to people who aren't prepared for what they're about to see. Especially the ones with the "forks-on-a-chain" dissection tools visible or the dissected urogenital areas.


A "Must Have" For Gross Anatomy Lecture & Lab   August 3, 2001
15 out of 15 found this review helpful

THIS BOOK WILL HELP IMPROVE YOUR ANATOMY KNOWLEDGE & LAB SKILLS!! I highly recommend this book for any student (medical, dental, physical therapy, physician assistant, other) who is taking a gross anatomy class involving cadaver dissection. It has photographs sequencing dissection. Photographs are categorized by body part/region. This is very helpful when preparing & reviewing for lab dissection & exams. I recommend you use it with Netter's or Sobotta's (especially Sobotta's CD-ROM) Atlas of Human Anatomy (colored illustrations, not photographs)for additional illustrations & references. I believe you will find this book to be very useful. I certainly did!


Best Photographic Atlas Available   October 26, 2004
Jason A. Graves (Lebanon, Oregon)
13 out of 13 found this review helpful

This is the best photographic atlas available. When buying an anatomy atlas, you must keep two concepts in mind. While the pictures in this atlas are of real human specimens / disections, the structures you see are of only that one disected structure (for example, this is a heart in this man, but it may look slighly different if a different man's heart was photographed), but remember that humans have a certain degree of variability. Now, an atlas like Netters has drawings or illustrations, which are also good because they give you a picture not of one specimen, but rather a illustration which you can easily correlate to the real thing in the disection room (for example, illustrations are done to show all structures even though one person may have this variation and another may have something different or not at all, let's just say illustrated atlases are "one size fit's all" drawings). So I actually recommend anybody studying human anatomy have 1 photographic "real" atlas like this one, and 1 illustrated atlas like netters or gray's.