MerckManuals.com offers a Consumer Version and a Professional Version of an online manual that covers thousands of health topics, including surgery and procedures.
Merck & Co., a corporation that has produced medical reference manuals for over 100 years, publishes the website. Medical professionals identified by name and credentials write much of the website’s content. Information about specific drugs is from Elsevier, a Dutch publishing company. The website describes policies in place to maintain the editorial independence of the website’s writers and reviewers. A review in the Journal of the Medical Library Association calls MerckManuals.com a reliable and trusted source for medical information.
The Consumer Version includes Surgery (discussing anesthesia, surgical risk, preparation, complications and discharge and recovery) and articles about specific types of surgery (such as bariatric surgery or cancer surgery) with the option to toggle to corresponding sections in the Professional Version (such as Care of the Surgical Patient). The Professional Version also includes Procedures & Exams (with video demonstrations).
Tips for use:
– In the Consumer Version see Quick Facts (marked by an image of a speeding hare) for articles that are shorter and easier to read.
– From the dropdown menu on the upper right see languages offered for the Consumer Version (English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, Chinese, Arabic, Kiswahili, Hindi and Indonesian).
– Some material, such as information about specific drugs, is available only in English.
Reviewed October 2025