In this era of unparalleled bio-technological developments where a clinician and even an orthopedic trainee are forgetting the art and science of a sound clinical examination, this book emphasized on the fundamentals of clinical diagnosis. It is sad that many a times, an elaborate investigation is ordered before a clinical assessment.

Dr Vivek has indeed burnt many midnight lamps to bring out this outstanding treatise on clinical examination. He as a teacher, surgeon, examiner and a clinician has understood the importance of a shabbily done clinical examination, which can have a bad impact on the daily life of our patients who come to us with so much of faith and hope.

In his well-illustrated book of 15 chapters, Dr Pandey has gone into the fundamentals and at the same time, the depth of most of the commonly faced musculoskeletal injuries and disorders. His book is comprehensive, well structured and made easy to arrive at a clinical diagnosis. I am sure this book will be a landmark amongst the large number of books which have come out on clinical examination. It is so different from others and it is bound to stand out from others because of the excellent flow of thoughts, clear photographic illustrations and more than all the passion with which this book has been written.

I should really compliment Dr Vivek Pandey for realizing his dreams and for his tenacity of purpose for this monumental work. I am sure all of us from senior most surgeons to the junior residents, postgraduate to undergraduate students will greatly be benefitted by going through this book. It shall definitely adorn the shelves of all our libraries as a ready reference book.

I would like to end my foreword by quoting these famous words from Upanishad:

This book has indeed brought in light from darkness, from ignorance to enlightenments and from death to the very essence of life.

With 15 chapters, starting from the basics of orthopedic examination, including tips and know hows, the book advances to cover joint examinations in detail, covering some aspects of anatomy and function, followed by history taking and examination. The key element of note is the numerous pictures that illustrate the text, which go on to enhance the understanding of these problems in the minds of these young students struggling for comprehension of complex orthopedic situations.

The structure and format of all the chapters is similar for easier understanding. An added feature is that each chapter has a proforma, which emphasizes key points, which are helpful to remember for medical examination. Each chapter then ends with some basic information about common diseases affecting the joint, allowing some sort of overview of the situation, albeit for the student levels.

I compliment Dr Vivek Pandey for this excellent book, and I hope that it becomes the standard references for medical and orthopedic students

Not only for that reason, the core of our profession, continues to consist of the combination of listening to the patient, completed with an accurate physical examination.

Dr Pandey should be complimented with completing the huge tasks of overviewing all possible tests in several areas in orthopedics by selecting the most sensitive, thus most useful tests for daily practice.

The way the content of this book is organized, makes it a very practical tool, not only for the medical students and orthopedic residents, but also for all doctors, who deal with orthopedic patients, as well as physiotherapists.

I can heartily recommend this extensive book on physical examination, it deserves a place on many bookshelves!

After I started clinical teaching for students as a resident and later as a staff, I always wondered how to simplify the clinical teaching, make it interesting, logical and deliver it in a structured fashion, especially for undergraduates whose interaction in orthopedics remains limited as compared to surgery, medicine, etc. Even for postgraduates, the available material remains less organized and sometimes, too much for basic understanding. Further, available material is quite a bit imaginary and devoid of pictures, which is difficult for a student to understand and apply. Many sections were poorly described such as peripheral nerve injury and spine examination. These two areas need understanding of basics of anatomy and function before the reader embarks the journey of understanding the examination. Certain sections were completely missing such as Amputation stump examination.

In my pursuit to make the clinical teaching simple and structured for students, I decided to pen down the entire basic orthopedic examination in a simple, structured and pictorial format, so that it becomes a ‘one-stop basic referral’ for musculoskeletal examination. I always believed that pictures and images say a lot than words! At one end, I wanted the book to have a basic understanding for undergraduates and on the other end to have advanced concepts for postgraduates too making it a complete guide for musculoskeletal examination.

After all the chapters were written, each chapter was reviewed by the specialist surgeons in the field to make it perfect for reading and understanding. However, despite multiple revisions of each chapter, paragraphs, word and reviews by another specialist, there is a possibility of some inadvertent error and unwanted omissions. We would welcome all suggestions and constructive criticism in our future reprints and revised editions.

If this simplified, structured, filled in with tips and pearls and pictorial academic material could help a student in understanding the nuances of musculoskeletal examination, I would feel blessed and consider my humble endeavor successful.

At the onset, I am deeply indebted to my alma mater Kasturba Medical College (KMC), Manipal and its organizational support who has created an excellent academic and clinical environment for teaching. Even though I conceptualized, wrote many chapters and edited the entire work, this academic work was not possible without the help of my colleagues Drs Hitesh, Sujayendra Murali, Naveen Mathai and Sameer Qureshi, who contributed several sections of the book and helped in the perfect shaping of this book. My father, Dr KN Pandey, who has always taught me tenets of life, professionalism and surgical skills too contributed a chapter.

After the text part of the book was over, the most important contributors of this book stepped in that is my two 2nd year residents; Dr Raghavendra Vyas and Dr Sashi Aier. The black and white text would not have been interesting without colorful images wherein both of my handsome residents agreed to model for various clinical tests on multiple occasion amidst their grueling schedule of orthopedics.

A disciple's growth exponentially accelerates if he has the guidance of great mentors! I thank my mentor Prof Sripathi Rao and my lifelong mentor and father Dr KN Pandey, who continue to inspire me about simplified and structured teaching. Further, I have been lucky to have great teachers like Prof(s) Benjamin Joseph, SP Mohanti and Sharath Rao, whose teaching methods had a remarkable effect on my teaching style. Special thanks to Prof Vineet Sharma from KGMC, Lucknow who always encouraged me to continue writing newer materials which can help students. I also thank my senior colleagues Prof Anil Bhat and Shyamsunder Bhat whose day-to-day guidance remains precious. My colleague Prof Kiran Acharya continued to give me invaluable inputs at each stage of book writing, editing and layout over morning coffee.

I am indebted to many of my colleagues who pitched in to review chapters to ensure that each section of the book is up to the mark. I thank Dr Navadgi (Consultant Hip and Knee Surgeon, Swindon, UK) for his valuable opinion in the knee and hip section and Dr KR Prathap Kumar (Consultant Shoulder and Elbow Surgeon, Sunrise Hospital, Kochi), for reviewing the shoulder and elbow section and providing valuable inputs. I thank my colleague Dr Darshan (Asst Prof, MS Ramaiah Medical College, Bengaluru) who is a brilliant wrist and hand surgeon for reviewing wrist and hand section and contributing the wrist instability section. My heartfelt thanks to Dr Nishanth Ampar (Asst Prof, KMC Manipal) and Dr Raghuraj Kundangar (Asst Prof, KMC Manipal), for their worthwhile opinion about the spine section. My senior Dr Ashwath Acharya (Asso Prof, KMC Manipal) who is very experienced in the field of brachial plexus and peripheral nerve injuries management reviewed the peripheral nerve injury section and gave many useful comments. Vast experience of Dr Kishore Reddy (Musculoskeletal Oncologist, Hyderabad) helped in shaping the bone tumor section.

This work was impossible to complete without the help of my colleagues Drs Naveen Mathai, Sandesh Madi and Jayakrishnan who extensively reviewed the entire manuscript and provided precious comments. During the early days of the writing of each section, few of my interns (Drs Jasleen, Prachi and Tirth) gave me important feedback from the student point of view.

Even though it is the hard work of the author, but this work would not have seen the light of the day without the help of Sri Jitendar P Vij (Group Chairman) and Mr Ankit Vij (Group President) of M/S Jaypee Brothers Medical Publishers (P) Ltd, New Delhi, India and their team. I thank Ms Chetna Malhotra Vohra (Associate Director—Content Strategy), Ms Payal (Senior Manager—Publishing) and Mr Venugopal for giving me patient hearing while I narrated my entire project to them. Once the work on book started; the immense help extended by Ms Ritika Chandna (Development Editor) and Mr Vipin Kaushik (Team Leader—Typesetting Department) at each stage is commendable. Both ensured that all my request were appropriately and timely addressed.

Most importantly, I am indebted towards my patients who have always deposed trust in me. The experience gained from them reflects at each step of this book. I also thank all my students of yesteryears and present whose inquisitiveness for knowledge ensured that I continued to make the teaching simple!