ABPlSurg Plastic Surgery study guide
ABPlSurg Plastic Surgery · Work through your exam, one topic at a time.
The American Board of Plastic Surgery (ABPS) certifying process is the route by which plastic surgeons in the United States demonstrate that they have met the profession's own standards, and it is administered by the Board itself, an independent organization based in Philadelphia. Candidates typically reach it after completing an accredited plastic surgery residency and being evaluated through the Board's training registration and evaluation process. The process has two principal stages: a written examination, which tests the breadth of plastic surgery knowledge and judgment across the full scope of the specialty, and an oral examination, in which candidates discuss cases and management decisions with examiner panels. The Board publishes separate written and oral examination process descriptions, quick reference tips for candidates, examination content outlines, and deadlines, so candidates should treat those documents as the authoritative roadmap rather than secondhand summaries. The ABPlSurg Plastic Surgery study guide has 2 sections and about 646 words.
01Written Examination: Core Knowledge and Question Technique
The written paper rewards breadth with precision : you must move fluently between congenital, traumatic, reconstructive, aesthetic, and oncologic topics, and between anatomy, physiology, and operative planning. Anchor your revision in the concepts that recur across specialties: blood supply and angiosome-based flap design, the reconstructive ladder and its modern equivalent (reconstructive elevator), wound healing phases and the factors that arrest them, soft-tissue biomechanics and suture selection, and the classification systems examiners love (burn depth, nerve injury, fracture patterns, breast ptosis, cleft anatomy).
332 words, about 2 min02Oral Examination: Structured Clinical Reasoning Under Questioning
The viva assesses how you think aloud : structured history, focused examination, prioritized differential, safe investigation, and a defensible operative plan with consent and complications. Examiners probe depth by asking "why?" and "what if?" - so every statement should be justifiable.
314 words, about 2 min