ABPS Anesthesiology (BCA) study guide
ABPS Anesthesiology (BCA) · Work through your exam, one topic at a time.
The Board of Certification in Anesthesiology (BCA) is a member board of the American Board of Physician Specialties (ABPS), a multi-specialty certifying body that certified its first physician in 1960 and whose Diplomates now practice across all 50 states, as well as Canada and Puerto Rico. BCA certification is a voluntary credential that allows successful candidates to present themselves to the public as qualified medical specialists in anesthesiology. The ABPS Anesthesiology (BCA) study guide has 10 sections and about 2,277 words.
01Basic Sciences: Physics, Physiology, Pharmacology, and Anatomy
Physics: understand partial pressure versus concentration, solubility, diffusion, and flow. Henry's law explains why volatile uptake depends on blood solubility; Poiseuille's law explains resistance changes with tube radius; Bernoulli and Venturi principles underlie jet ventilation and nebulizers.
272 words, about 1 min02Anesthesia Equipment, Monitoring, and Instrumentation
Know the anesthesia machine pathway: pipeline and cylinder gases, pressure regulators, fail-safe devices, flowmeters, vaporizers, fresh-gas outlet, breathing circuit, ventilator, CO2 absorber, and scavenging. Understand low-pressure versus high-pressure leaks, check valves, and oxygen failure alarms.
253 words, about 1 min03Preoperative Evaluation and Coexisting Disease
Preoperative evaluation estimates perioperative risk and identifies modifiable disease. Cover functional capacity (METs), cardiovascular risk (RCRI, ACS-NSQIP), pulmonary risk (COPD, smoking, OSA, spirometry when indicated), renal and hepatic disease, diabetes, anticoagulation, anemia, frailty, and substance use.
240 words, about 1 min04Airway Management and Difficult Airway
Airway management begins with prediction, preparation, positioning, and preoxygenation. Assess mouth opening, Mallampati, thyromental distance, neck mobility, dentition, obesity, and prior difficulty, but remember that individual tests have poor predictive value.
209 words, about 1 min05Anesthetic Techniques and Intraoperative Management
General anesthesia combines hypnosis, amnesia, analgesia, immobility, and autonomic stability. Understand inhaled agents (MAC, blood-gas solubility, effects on blood pressure and bronchi), propofol TIVA (context-sensitive recovery, infusion syndrome), opioids, muscle relaxants, reversal, and multimodal analgesia.
230 words, about 1 min06Regional Anesthesia and Acute Pain Medicine
Know neuraxial anatomy (epidural versus intrathecal space, ligamentum flavum, dermatomes), local anesthetic onset and duration, adjuvants, and ultrasound principles. For peripheral blocks, identify nerves, fascia, and danger structures; use hydrodissection and incremental injection with aspiration.
212 words, about 1 min07Postoperative Care, Complications, and Postoperative Nausea and Vomiting
PACU care prioritizes airway, breathing, circulation, pain, nausea, temperature, and urine output. Common complications include hypoxemia, hypoventilation, aspiration, laryngospasm, bleeding, hypertension, arrhythmia, shivering, malignant hyperthermia, anaphylaxis, and delirium.
209 words, about 1 min08Critical Care and Emergency Resuscitation
Critical care anesthesia covers shock (hypovolemic, distributive, cardiogenic, obstructive), sepsis, respiratory failure, ARDS, acute kidney injury, and post-arrest care. Use a systematic ABCDE approach, early antibiotics and source control in sepsis, balanced fluids, and vasopressors when mean arterial pressure is inadequate.
220 words, about 1 min09Special Populations and Subspecialty Anesthesia
Pediatrics: larger head, small airway, high oxygen consumption, immature renal and hepatic clearance, and temperature vulnerability. Use weight-based dosing, uncuffed or cuffed tube sizing, and careful fluid boluses.
215 words, about 1 min10Patient Safety, Quality Improvement, Ethics, and Professional Practice
Patient safety requires human factors, checklists, standardized handoffs, medication labeling, alarm management, and reporting systems. Understand error models (active versus latent failures), just culture, root cause analysis (RCA), and failure mode and effects analysis (FMEA).
217 words, about 1 min