FCPS Part 2 Plastic Surgery Burns & Wound Healing MCQs: High-Yield Practice Questions

Burns and Burn Reconstruction (135 questions) and Wound Healing, Scar Management & Skin Grafting (56 questions) together make up 191 questions in HighYield's FCPS Part 2 Plastic Surgery question bank — two closely related subjects that haven't had a dedicated practice post until now. Below is a sample covering acute burn management, wound healing physiology, and grafting.

Acute Burn Management

1. Using the Parkland formula (4 mL/kg per % total body surface area burned) for fluid resuscitation, what fraction of the calculated total is given in the first 8 hours after the burn?

• A) One quarter
• B) One half ✅
• C) All of it
• D) One third

2. A deep burn wound that appears white or leathery, is non-blanching, and is painless due to destruction of cutaneous nerve endings is classified as:

• A) Superficial (first-degree)
• B) Superficial partial-thickness
• C) Full-thickness (third-degree) ✅
• D) Deep partial-thickness

3. Using the Rule of Nines in an adult, the head and neck together are estimated to represent approximately what percentage of total body surface area?

• A) 4%
• B) 9% ✅
• C) 18%
• D) 36%

4. A circumferential full-thickness burn of a limb causing vascular compromise distal to the injury is treated urgently with:

• A) Fasciotomy
• B) Escharotomy ✅
• C) Debridement alone, deferring any incision
• D) Immediate skin grafting

5. In suspected smoke-inhalation injury with carbon monoxide poisoning, standard pulse oximetry readings are a known pitfall because they can read:

• A) Falsely low
• B) Falsely normal or elevated, since it cannot distinguish carboxyhemoglobin from oxyhemoglobin ✅
• C) Completely unreadable
• D) Always accurately regardless of carboxyhemoglobin level

Wound Healing and Scarring

6. The proliferative phase of wound healing, marked by fibroblast activity and collagen deposition, typically begins around:

• A) The first few hours after injury
• B) Day 3 to 5 ✅
• C) Week 6 onward only
• D) It does not have a defined onset

7. Unlike hypertrophic scars, keloids are specifically distinguished by:

• A) Staying confined within the original wound margins
• B) Extending beyond the original wound margins ✅
• C) Spontaneous regression within a few months
• D) Never recurring after excision

Skin Grafting

8. Compared with a full-thickness skin graft, a split-thickness skin graft has which practical advantage in large burn wounds?

• A) A better long-term cosmetic match to surrounding skin
• B) It can be harvested as large sheets, and the donor site re-epithelialises and can be reused ✅
• C) No risk of graft contraction
• D) Superior durability over joints

Why This Pairing Comes Up Together

• Acute burn calculations (Parkland formula, Rule of Nines) are tested as straightforward numeric questions, so memorising the formulas cold is worth more than understanding the theory alone.
• Depth classification and escharotomy indications overlap constantly with wound-healing physiology, since one determines whether the other is even needed.
• Hypertrophic scar vs keloid is a classic distractor pair across both the burns and general wound-healing questions.

HighYield's FCPS Part 2 Plastic Surgery question bank covers Burns and Wound Healing alongside Breast Surgery, Hand and Upper Extremity, Aesthetic Surgery, and every other subspecialty tested in the exam, with every question explained. For the complete picture of the exam itself, see our FCPS Part 2 application guide. Try the first questions free, no sign-in required.