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FEBU Part 1 study materials
FEBU Part 1 study resources

FEBU Part 1: Basic sciences relevant to urology: anatomy, physiology, embryology, pathology

FEBU Part 1 · Work through your exam, one topic at a time.

All guide sections

Basic sciences relevant to urology: anatomy, physiology, embryology, pathology

What the exam tests

Applied anatomy, physiology, embryology and pathology that explain clinical findings. Questions are usually short and factual.

Core rules

  • The ureter has three constrictions where stones lodge: the pelviureteric junction, the crossing of the iliac vessels at the pelvic brim, and the vesicoureteric junction.
  • The prostate is described in zones: the peripheral zone harbours most carcinomas and is palpable on DRE; the transition zone causes benign hyperplasia; the central zone is rarely involved.
  • Renal blood flow is about a fifth of cardiac output; the kidney autoregulates, and the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone axis and antidiuretic hormone govern sodium and water handling.
  • Micturition is a spinal reflex modulated by pontine centres: parasympathetic pelvic fibres contract detrusor, sympathetic hypogastric fibres relax detrusor and close the internal sphincter, and pudendal fibres control the external sphincter.
  • Embryology explains the anomalies: the kidney ascends from the pelvis, a horseshoe kidney becomes trapped below the inferior mesenteric artery, and the Wolffian ducts form epididymis, vas and seminal vesicle while the Mullerian ducts regress under anti-Mullerian hormone.
  • Pathology: urothelial carcinoma is often multifocal through field change; clear cell carcinoma arises from proximal tubule; Gleason grading is architectural, not cytological.

Worked example

A question asks why a distal ureteric stone causes referred pain to the groin and testis. Reasoning: the distal ureter shares sensory pathways with the genitalia through the genitofemoral and ilioinguinal nerves, so visceral afferents converge; upper ureteric pain refers to the loin via T10 to L1 dermatomes.

Traps

Mixing up the three ureteric constrictions; describing benign prostatic hyperplasia as peripheral zone disease; forgetting that sympathetic fibres both relax detrusor and close the internal sphincter; grading prostate cancer on nuclear atypia.