Book Review: “Complications: A Surgeon’s Notes on an Imperfect Science” by Atul Gawande

This is Atul Gawande first book, it was a National Book Award Finalist, and I heard about it while reading a glowing review of his second book, “Better: A Surgeon’s Notes on Performance”. The bulk of the book is various stories from Atul’s residency, and a few stories are from other surgeons. I love reading about medicine and surgery so I really enjoyed this book. Atul is a very good storyteller, and the experiences that he and his fellow doctors have had is really interesting. At its heart, this is a book about what doctors know, what they don’t know, and how they have acquired the knowledge/skills that they have. He raises interesting points on the training of doctors (i.e., training is essential, but some patients die as a result), the limits of what doctors can do (e.g., treating pain), the difficulty of making a diagnosis with limited/imperfect information. To top it all off, the book is the perfect length (250 pages). Final Grade: B+