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The SBA questions on RCEMLearning are designed to support revision and self-directed learning in Emergency Medicine.

While they reflect the style and format of RCEM examinations, performance on these questions should not be interpreted as an indication of success or failure in any official RCEM examination.

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Chest Pain and SOB

A young patient presents with chest pain and shortness of breath.
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Beyond Dry Skin

A 2-year-old child presents with worsening eczema and parental concerns that she is unwell.
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The Invisible Grip – Non-Fatal Strangulation

A young woman presents to your emergency department with a neck injury after being assaulted. She experienced dyspnoea, near loss of consciousness and urinary incontinence, raising concern for a significant underlying injury despite minimal external findings.
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Cavernous Sinus Thrombosis – A Life-threatening Cause of Ophthalmoplegia

A febrile patient presents with severe headache, periorbital swelling, proptosis, painful ophthalmoplegia and cranial nerve deficits following recent facial or sinus infection.
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A Complicated Pregnancy

A pregnant woman presents with a headache and abdominal pain and suddenly deteriorates. How will you manage this?
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When a Teenager Asks to Be Seen Alone

A young person presenting with recurrent UTI
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Descending Paralysis

A 47-year-old woman presents to the emergency department with descending paralysis.
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When Google Says It’s Meningitis

A 19‑year‑old student presents with fever, headache and malaise 24 hours after receiving a MenB vaccine, worried he has developed meningitis.
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Acute Liver Failure

A young woman is pre-alerted to the emergency department with increasing drowsiness and confusion.
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Feeling Short of Breath

Your patient’s x-ray shows his heart is almost the whole size of his chest. What’s going on? And what are you going to do about it?
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The Headache

A young man presents with fever, headache, photophobia and vomiting. Can you interpret the findings to diagnose and treat him appropriately before it’s too late?
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A Swollen Red Eye in a 5-Year-Old

A 5-year-old boy is brought to the ED with a swollen red eye and a raised temperature.
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Fever in the Pregnant Returning Traveller

Following a recent travel to Zambia, a pregnant woman develops high fever, dark urine, and confusion after a seizure; she arrives in the ED acutely unwell with hypoglycaemia.
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Facial Injury

A 14-year-old girl presents at the ED after falling into a tree and impaling her cheek with a large twig, just below her right eye, obscuring her vision.
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Oxygen Prescribing for Acute Illness

A 62-year-old patient presents to the ED complaining of shortness of breath. You are asked to prescribe their oxygen.
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A Broken Heart

A recently widowed 60-year-old female presents with chest pain and shortness of breath. Her ECG features diffuse ST elevation.
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My eyes have gone funny!

A 65-year-old man presents with sudden-onset flashes and floaters in his right eye over two days, maintaining good vision and no pain, prompting assessment for vitreoretinal pathology.
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Doctor, Eye have a Problem

A patient presents with sudden, painful loss of vision. Can you diagnose the problem and provide emergency management?
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Collapsed Neonate

A neonate that suddenly collapses leaves us all with dread.
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Emergency Treatment of Anaphylaxis

1 in 300 people will experience anaphylaxis at some point in their lives. RCUK anaphylaxis guidelines provide an updated consensus for the recognition and management of anaphylaxis in all age groups.
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Childhood Forearm Injury

Buckle / Torus fractures in children
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Breathlessness and Oedema: A Diagnostic Challenge in the ED

A 55-year-old presents with bilateral lower leg pitting oedema and heart failure symptoms. Unremarkable initial investigations lead to digging deeper for the correct diagnosis.
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Epistaxis on Warfarin

A bleeding patient on anticoagulation
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Drug Overdose

A young woman, who walks into the ED with Propranolol overdose, suddenly collapses.

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