ABA APPLIED Exam study guide
ABA APPLIED Exam · Work through your exam, one topic at a time.
The APPLIED Exam is the third and final examination in the American Board of Anesthesiology's initial certification sequence for anesthesiologists. As the ABA describes it, candidates "Earn your certification through a series of exams: BASIC, ADVANCED and APPLIED," with the APPLIED Exam following the BASIC and ADVANCED Exams. It is intended for physicians who have completed the earlier written examinations and are working toward primary certification in anesthesiology. The ABA's site describes its certification process as ensuring that anesthesiologists "have the knowledge and skills to deliver the highest quality care," and the APPLIED Exam is the stage at which that judgment is assessed in a clinical, case-based setting rather than through multiple-choice items alone. Topics on this exam: Anesthesiology and Subspecialty content. The ABA APPLIED Exam study guide has 2 sections and about 629 words.
01Anesthesiology: Core Intraoperative Physiology and Pharmacology
Candidates must reason mechanistically about how anesthetic drugs and ventilation strategies interact with cardiovascular and respiratory physiology. Core concepts include the alveolar gas equation, oxygen delivery (DO2 = CO × CaO2), the oxyhemoglobin dissociation curve and its shifts, volatile agent MAC and its modifiers (age, temperature, pregnancy, ethanol, opioids), and the pharmacodynamics of induction agents and neuromuscular blockers. Know that MAC decreases roughly 6% per decade after age 40, that hypothermia and pregnancy lower MAC, and that chronic ethanol raises it. Understand context-sensitive half-time for propofol and remifentanil, and why remifentanil's is constant.
323 words, about 2 min02Subspecialty Content: Regional, Obstetric, and Pediatric Considerations
Subspecialty items test whether you can adapt general principles to populations and techniques with altered physiology. Expect questions on local anesthetic pharmacology (pKa, protein binding, maximum doses, LAST management), neuraxial block levels and complications, obstetric physiology, and pediatric dosing and airway differences. Understand that pKa determines onset (closer to physiologic pH = more uncharged base = faster onset), while protein binding and lipophilicity drive duration and potency. Bupivacaine is highly cardiotoxic; ropivacaine is less so.
306 words, about 2 min