ABOS / US Boards · Part II

Oral Certifying practice

The ABOS Part II oral defends your own clinical decisions. Rehearse case-defence orals domain by domain — read the scenario, answer aloud as if facing the examiner, then reveal the model response, the traps and the follow-ups.

Part II oral cases: 226
Examiner prompts: 1,344
Domains: 10

Practise all Part II orals together

Build a mixed case-list session across every domain, just as the real oral samples your practice.

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32 cases

Trauma

Defend your fixation choices, timing and post-op plan under questioning — the pattern, the options you considered and the complications you anticipated.

Covers: Fracture management, polytrauma, damage control

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24 cases

Adult Reconstruction (Hip & Knee)

Indications, implant and bearing choices, peri-operative optimisation and how you manage the stiff, infected or loose replacement.

Covers: Primary and revision hip & knee arthroplasty

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22 cases

Sports Medicine

Graft choice, rehabilitation, return-to-play decisions and the evidence behind operative versus non-operative pathways.

Covers: Ligament, meniscus, cartilage and instability

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23 cases

Spine

Decompression versus fusion reasoning, neurological assessment, and recognising the emergencies you must not miss.

Covers: Degenerative, deformity, trauma and red flags

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22 cases

Hand & Wrist

Reconstruct the decision-making for fractures, compressive neuropathies and the soft-tissue problems examiners probe for judgement.

Covers: Distal radius, tendon, nerve and small-joint

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22 cases

Foot & Ankle

Operative thresholds, fixation strategy and the limb-at-risk decisions in the neuropathic and dysvascular foot.

Covers: Ankle fractures, tendon, deformity and diabetic foot

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23 cases

Shoulder & Elbow

Proximal humerus and cuff decision-making, instability work-up and when reconstruction beats fixation.

Covers: Cuff, instability, arthroplasty and elbow trauma

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24 cases

Pediatrics

Age-specific management, the must-not-miss diagnoses and how you counsel families through uncertainty.

Covers: Developmental, trauma and the limping child

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22 cases

Orthopaedic Oncology

Staging-before-biopsy discipline, when to refer, and the limb-salvage versus amputation conversation.

Covers: Bone & soft-tissue tumours, the suspicious lesion

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Safe surgeon12 cases

Professionalism & Ethics — the “safe surgeon”

The judgement Part II quietly scores throughout: informed consent, disclosing complications, capacity and surrogates, the impaired colleague and wrong-site prevention.

Covers: Consent, complications, capacity, conflicts, safety

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How the Part II oral works here

A case-defence rehearsal, not an official scoring simulator

The real ABOS Part II is built around your own case list: examiners probe data gathering, diagnosis, treatment planning, technical execution, outcomes and complications, applied knowledge, and the professionalism that marks a “safe surgeon”. Each domain here opens a set drawn only from that area's cases. Read the scenario like a candidate, commit to your management aloud, then reveal the model answer, examiner traps and follow-ups, and mark each as ready or needing work. This is an independent study aid mapped to the public Part II structure — not an official ABOS assessment or a predictor of your result.

Drill the “safe surgeon” ethics orals Back to ABOS track