Urology - FEBU Written Examination
The FEBU written examination is a single-best-answer MCQ paper that samples the whole urology curriculum: uro-oncology, stone disease, functional urology and LUTS, trauma, paediatric urology, andrology, infection, transplantation, and applied basic science. It tests whether you can recognise the clinical problem, select the safest guideline-concordant next step, and avoid options that are partially true but not best.
What is being tested
- Breadth over depth: common conditions, emergencies, and core guideline pathways.
- Single best answer: exactly one option is the most appropriate; distractors are often true statements in the wrong context.
- Applied basic science: anatomy, physiology, pharmacology, imaging principles, and basic statistics.
- Guideline-concordant care, especially EAU guidance on haematuria, stones, UTI, trauma, and oncology pathways.
Rules that decide marks
- Read the task word: next step, most likely diagnosis, investigation of choice, definitive management. These demand different answers.
- Resuscitate before you investigate when the patient is unstable or septic.
- An obstructed infected system is an emergency: antibiotics plus decompression, not definitive stone treatment.
- In oncology, confirm histology and stage before proposing extirpative treatment unless there is an emergency.
- Know first-line versus salvage therapy and absolute contraindications.
Worked example
A 45-year-old woman presents with fever 38.9 °C, rigors, and left flank pain. CT shows an 8 mm obstructing left ureteric stone and hydronephrosis. What is the most appropriate next step? Options: ESWL; ureteroscopy and stone extraction; IV antibiotics and urgent decompression; analgesia and outpatient review; oral antibiotics and repeat CT in 6 weeks. Reasoning: the combination of obstruction and infection is urosepsis until proven otherwise. The immediate priorities are resuscitation, IV antibiotics, and urgent drainage by stent or nephrostomy. ESWL and ureteroscopy are definitive options but not the immediate priority before drainage. Outpatient management ignores the time-critical risk of sepsis.
Traps that cost marks
Choosing a true but non-prioritised option; missing "next" and answering "definitive"; forgetting decompression in infected obstruction; ordering imaging before stabilisation; ignoring age/sex-specific diagnoses; applying surveillance intervals loosely; and not checking contraindications.