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Veterinary Specialty Boards Reading List : Surgery: Large and Small Animal (ACVS)

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ACVS Disclaimer

American College of Veterinary Surgeons (ACVS) Reading List

This is only a convenience copy of the ACVS reading list to help find copies of reading materials in local libraries.  It does not replace the official ACVS reading list. Candidates are responsible for ensuring they use the latest ACVS reading list.

Access to Reading Materials

You have free access through the UW-Madison Libraries’ subscriptions to nearly any journal/article you will need. If you are on campus or using the campus VPN, you will often see a note on publishers’ websites that says ‘Access Provided by UW-Madison’. If you see this note, you will not be prompted for payment to get the full text of an article.  If this note isn't present and you encounter a paywall, you will likely still be able to get access through the UW-Madison Libraries. You may need to search for the article in a library database in order to find it or request a copy via ILL. 

Note: Increasingly journals are offering free and legal access to some or all of the articles they publish. Tools like Unpaywall may also allow you to freely and legally access some of the articles you’re interested in, once you have graduated and no longer have access to UW-Madison Libraries’ collections. 

American College of Veterinary Surgeons (ACVS) Reading List

Selected References for Small Animal Surgery

"The following references and books are suggested reading in preparation for the 2022 ACVS Phase I Examination. Other textbooks and current references may be pertinent. Page numbers refer to print textbooks. Digital versions may have different page numbers."

Selected References for Large Animal Surgery

"The following references and books are suggested reading in preparation for the 2022 ACVS Phase I Surgical Knowledge Examination. Other textbooks and current references may be pertinent."

"The following references and books are suggested reading in addition to the current Phase I reading list, for preparation for the 2022 ACVS Phase II Surgical Competency Examination. Other textbooks and current references may be pertinent. Knowledge of basic and applied anatomy is assumed."

Selected References for Small Animal Surgery

Selected References for Large Animal Surgery

"Knowledge of basic and applied physiology is assumed and should be reviewed in an appropriate text," such as these two books:

Journals for Small Animal Surgery Candidates

Many journals contain articles pertaining to surgery (both human and veterinary) and should be perused for current literature. A partial list of veterinary journals includes:

Journals for Large Animal Surgery Candidates

The majority of questions come from literature published in the last five years. For example, if you are taking the 2021 examination, questions will primarily come from literature published in the range of June 1, 2015–June 30, 2020. Questions may also come from older articles considered significant and essential to the knowledge of the veterinary surgeon.

 

 

This guide contains the list of books and journals recommended as study materials for the American College of Veterinary Surgeons (ACVS) examination.

Source:  ACVS Certification Examination Reading List

This resource updated: 11/9/2022

Textbooks updated to most recent edition: 11/9/2022

Source reading list reviewed: 11/9/2022

Source reading list updated by specialty board: 07/28/2022

CC-BY

This guide was created from a template maintained by the Ohio State University Libraries and the Texas A&M University School of Veterinary Medicine & Biological Sciences. You can access the template at https://guides.osu.edu/VetBoardLists/. The template is licensed under creative commons, non-commercial use, share-alike, adaptations allowed. 

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