A neuroanatomical comparison: Blumenfeld’s Neuroanatomy through Clinical Cases vs. Snell’s Clinical Neuroanatomy

Joule Li

Sunday, October 23rd, 2011

Joule Li
Second Year Medicine (Undergraduate)
University of Adelaide

Joule is passionate about education, from both teaching and learning perspectives. He currently enjoys studying neurology and being involved in educational and peer tutoring programmes run by the Adelaide Medical Students’ Society. In the longer term, he plans to incorporate the field of Medical Education in his future career.


Blumenfeld H. Neuroanatomy through Clinical Cases, Second Edition. Sunderland: Sinauer Associates; 2010.

RRP: AU$119.95

Snell, RS. Clinical Neuroanatomy, Seventh Edition. Baltimore: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins; 2009.

RRP: AU$107.80

As stated by Sparks and colleagues [1] in their comparison of Clinically Oriented Anatomy and Gray’s Anatomy for Students, studying anatomy can be a challenging endeavour. This is true even more so for the study of neuroanatomy, which many students find particularly overwhelming. In the neuroanatomy textbook arena stand two ‘gold standard’ textbooks: Neuroanatomy through Clinical Cases, by Hal Blumenfeld, and Clinical Neuroanatomy, by Richard Snell. Inspired by the aforementioned comparative anatomy textbook review in the previous issue of the journal, I ponder the question: Which neuroanatomy textbook is superior, the more established Snell or the newer Blumenfeld?

I begin my comparison with a consideration of their similarities…