PSPal Surgery

The guides

Illustrated guides for medical students. Free to read, free to download, free to teach from.

Written and clinically reviewed by , consultant minimally invasive and bariatric surgeon, Al-Makassed Hospital, Jerusalem, and Assistant Professor of Surgery, Al-Quds University. Last updated .

Cover of Intravenous Fluids: A Practical Guide for Surgical Patients
New · Volume 3

Intravenous Fluids

A Practical Guide for Surgical Patients · 71 pages · DOI 10.5281/zenodo.23496713

Resuscitation, maintenance and replacement for the surgical patient: choosing the fluid, the volume and the rate, reading the fluid balance chart, and the patient whose urine output is falling on the first night after an operation.

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Cover of Calcium & the Parathyroid: A Visual Guide for Medical Students
Volume 2

Calcium & the Parathyroid

A Visual Guide for Medical Students · 35 pages · DOI 10.5281/zenodo.23158993

Part 1 walks the calcium circuit in ten illustrated steps. Part 2 takes it to the bedside: reading a calcium result, the three numbers that give the diagnosis, the hypercalcaemic patient, the parathyroid operation, and the tingling fingers on the ward round after a thyroidectomy. Part 3 works through five patients.

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Cover of Bile and Jaundice: A Visual Guide for Medical Students
Volume 1

Bile and Jaundice

A Visual Guide for Medical Students · 31 pages · DOI 10.5281/zenodo.23006422

Part 1 follows bile acids around the enterohepatic circulation in ten illustrated steps. Part 2 applies that circuit to the patient with jaundice: bilirubin metabolism, classification, history, examination, laboratory interpretation and four worked cases.

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In preparationAcid–Base Balance From first principles to the arterial blood gas of a surgical patient.
PlannedMCQ bank Single-best-answer questions for surgical finals, with explanations.

How the guides are built

Every page follows the same shape: one clear diagram, the key points, what it means at the bedside, a surgical pearl and a quick self-check question. They assume no prior knowledge and build from the physiology upwards, because the clinical signs only make sense once the mechanism does.

Using them in teaching

Volumes 1 and 2 are licensed CC BY-NC 4.0: you may share, print and adapt them for non-commercial teaching, provided the author is credited. Volume 3 is licensed CC BY-NC-ND 4.0: share and print it unchanged. If you use one with a student group, I would be glad to hear how it went.

Read the topics online

You do not have to download anything. Every topic on the site has its own page, gathering the guides, the patients to clerk and the calculators that belong to it:

Jaundice & liver testsWhy a patient turns yellow, how to tell the three types apart at the bedside, and how to read the liver function tests that follow.7 guides · 1 calculator · 2 casesBile & the gallbladderThe enterohepatic circulation in ten steps, what bile actually does to a fat meal, and what happens when the circuit is broken.3 guides · 1 case · book Part 1The acute abdomenThe commonest reason a student is sent to clerk a patient. Where the pain started, where it went, and what that movement tells you.3 cases to clerkGastrointestinal bleedingBlood from the top and blood from the bottom: what to ask, which drug history matters, and what must not be called haemorrhoids.2 cases to clerkHernia & the groinA lump in the groin, and the three questions that decide whether it can wait until the morning or needs a surgeon tonight.1 case to clerkCalcium & the parathyroidFour glands defending one number, the hypercalcaemic patient, the parathyroid operation, and the tingling fingers the morning after a thyroidectomy.5 guides · 1 calculator · bookEndocrine & bariatric surgeryThe thyroid, the parathyroids and the metabolic patient — the operations this unit does most, and the histories behind them.1 case · 1 peer-reviewed chapterWounds & the lower limbVenous, arterial or neuropathic. Three ulcers that look similar on a ward round and are told apart almost entirely by the history.1 case to clerk