FANZCA Study Guide 2026
Everything you need to pass the FANZCA exam in one place: the exam format, every topic to study, real practice questions with explanations, flashcards, and full-length practice tests. Free, no sign-up needed.
📋 FANZCA Exam Format at a Glance
📚 FANZCA Topics to Study (69)
✍️ Sample FANZCA Questions & Answers
1. What does a positive 'cannot intubate, cannot oxygenate' (CICO) scenario mandate according to FANZCA airway management guidelines?
FANZCA and ANZCA guidelines mandate immediate front-of-neck airway access (scalpel cricothyrotomy as the default technique) when both ventilation and intubation fail, to prevent hypoxic brain injury and death.
2. Which equation correctly expresses alveolar ventilation (VA)?
Alveolar ventilation accounts for physiological dead space, so only the portion of tidal volume reaching alveoli (tidal volume minus dead space) contributes to gas exchange, multiplied by respiratory rate.
3. A patient receives propofol via a target-controlled infusion (TCI). The Marsh model uses which variable as its primary input for volume of distribution calculations?
The Marsh model uses total body weight as its primary input, which can lead to overdosing in obese patients compared to models like Schnider that use age and lean body weight.
4. A 55-year-old patient with NYHA Class III heart failure needs emergency appendicectomy. Preoperative echo shows EF 25%. Which anaesthetic induction agent best preserves haemodynamic stability?
Etomidate causes minimal cardiovascular depression and is the preferred induction agent for haemodynamically compromised patients with severe left ventricular dysfunction.
5. Under the principle of justice as applied to resource allocation in anaesthesia, a clinician should:
Justice in healthcare requires that limited resources be allocated on the basis of clinical need and likely benefit using transparent, equitable criteria, not social worth or financial status.
6. The Frank-Starling law of the heart states that within physiological limits, increased ventricular end-diastolic volume leads to:
The Frank-Starling mechanism describes how increased preload (end-diastolic volume) stretches myocardial fibres, optimising actin-myosin overlap and increasing the force of contraction, thereby increasing stroke volume.