Welcome to the Surgery Rotation page. Surgery is one of the easier rotations. It has lots of summative work and the exam is relatively easy. It is said that you really have to try hard to fail the Surgery Rotation. All files are presented in PDF format. 

Surgery Rotation

 Acute Abdomen    |    Acute Pancreatitis  |    Appendicitis    |    Cholecystitis     |    Colorectal Cancer    | 

   Disorders of Breast    |     Disorders of Male Genitalia    |    Disorders of Thyroid    |    Hernia    |   

 Jaundice    |    Peripheral Vascular Disease    |    Varicose Veins    |    Arterial Exam    |    

"Lumps & Bumps"    |    Testicular Exam     |     Thyroid Exam    |    Pathology Pots (Hard copy)     |  

  CASE HISTORY    |    LITERATURE REVIEW 

Hints / Tips

• Pay close attention to the tutorials. Usually, what is not taught is not expected to be examinable. But in some instances, what is taught is only superficial to what one must know. That is why these notes have been developed.

• Download the examination techniques guideline from the Surgery website (if you are a UTAS) student. This is excellent in terms of a quick summary. 

• Using mnemonics to remember some minor details will go a long way in getting you D's and HD's. 

• Starting your Case Histories and Literature Reviews early is the key to having enough time to study for the end of rotation OSCE's. 

• I believe finishing your on call sheets evenly over the course of the rotation is the key to success. The reason being, you will develop your patient skills, examination techniques, and history taking skills over the course of the rotation. It is vital you do not finish all of them in the first week, because these on call times are really valuable to the keen student. It is also worth noting, trying to complete your on call sheets on the last 2 weeks is a recipe for disaster.

• Attending ward rounds, meetings, and clinics is an excellent opportunity to learn what is happening in the field of surgery. Most importantly, it is valuable in knowing your possible exam assessors, therefore knowing their technique and learning is invaluable. 

• A general tip: Being fast, succinct and accurate is a vital skill you need to develop. A 7 minute OSCE is really not that much if you are to elicit all the clinical findings and take a comprehensive history. Really contrasting to the Medicine rotation if you have already done so. Knowing key questions for the history taking stations is absolutely vital. Have a list and rattle them off one after the other. 

• Path pots and Radiology stations are usually giveaways. Learn for these nicely. What is expected is repeated over and over again the tutorials, and if you are careful - you might even get a hint as to what is going to be in the exam. Radiology CD can be obtained for loan from the Clinical School Library.

• Must know examinations --> Raja's pick: Hernias, Testes, Vascular, Venous, Thyroid. Must know history's: Hernias, Testes, Vascular, Venous, Thyroid, Breast, Acute abdomen. You would be silly if you miss any of these.  

• You need to know differential diagnoses for each quadrant of the abdomen plus all the examinations. Failure to know is quite silly.  

• Please note: Using any of the material with respect to the case history or literature review posted here for summative purposes is prohibited. These materials are only present to give you an idea of the setting out, and language required. If guilty of use, these materials will be taken down, therefore affecting all users of this website.Furthermore, do not limit your learning to this resource.