MRCS Part B Revision · Anatomy
Femoral Region — MRCS Part B Anatomy
By Dr Richard Miller, MBChB FRCS · Reviewed
Femoral Region is a surgical anatomy station. Three of the seventeen examined stations in the MRCS Part B OSCE are surgical anatomy. The anatomy stations put a prosected specimen, a model or an image in front of you and ask you to identify structures and say what they do, what they relate to and what happens when they are injured.
What you need to know for the Femoral Region station
The Femoral Region
The Femoral Canal
The femoral canal is the medial compartment of femoral sheath. The sheath covers the femoral artery, vein and canal but not nerve. The canal opens superiorly into abdomen via femoral ring.
The femoral sheath has three compartments. The lateral compartment contains the femoral artery, the intermediate compartment contains the femoral vein, and the medial and smallest compartment is called the femoral canal. The femoral canal contains efferent lymphatic vessels and a lymph node embedded in a small amount of areolar tissue. It is conical in shape and is about 2 cm long.
Boundaries of femoral ring and canal
Anteriorly: Inguinal ligament
Posteriorly: Pectineal ligament
Laterally: Femoral vein
Medially: Lacunar ligament
Contents of the Femoral Canal
The Femoral Canal contains: fat, lymphatics and Cloquet’s lymph node
The canal allows space for expansion of the femoral vein and the transport of lymphatics
Femoral Herniae
Femoral hernias occur just below the inguinal ligament, when abdominal contents pass through a naturally occurring weakness called the femoral canal. Femoral hernias are a relatively uncommon type, accounting for only 3% of all hernias. While femoral hernias can occur in both males and females, almost all of them develop in women because of the wider bone structure of the female pelvis.
The Femoral Triangle Boundaries
The femoral triangle is bounded:
Superiorly: Inguinal ligament.
Medially: Lateral border of the adductor longus muscle.
Laterally: Medial border of the sartorius muscle.
Floor: Pectineus and adductor longus muscles medially and iliopsoas muscle laterally.
Roof: The fascia lata, except at the saphenous opening where it is formed by the cribriform fascia.
Contents of Femoral Triangle
The following structures are contained within the femoral triangle (from lateral to medial):
• Femoral nerve and its (terminal) branches.
• Femoral sheath and its contents:
• Femoral artery and several of its branches.
• Femoral vein and its proximal tributaries (e.g., the great saphenous and deep femoral veins).
• Deep inguinal lymph nodes and associated lymphatic vessels.
Images from this station
What are you asked at the Femoral Region station?
The station runs to 20 questions over nine minutes. These are the questions as they are put to you; the model answers are in the question bank.
- Where would you palpate the femoral pulse?
- What is the femoral canal?
- What are the boundaries of the femoral canal/ring?
- What are the contents of the femoral canal?
- Clinically how could you differentiate between a femoral and an indirect inguinal hernia?
- What is the anatomical reason for femoral hernias being more likely to strangulate and be irreducible than inguinal hernias?
- What structure is at particular risk of damage during a femoral hernia operation?
- Identify structures 1-3
- Identify structures 4-7
- Identify structures 8-12
- Identify structures 13-17
- What is the femoral triangle?
And 8 more at this station.
How is the anatomy station marked in MRCS Part B?
An anatomy station is marked out of 20, and all 20 marks go to clinical knowledge and its application. No communication, technical-skill or professionalism marks are available in an anatomy bay, which is unusual: in most other stations more than half the marks sit outside your factual knowledge.
FAQ
What does the Femoral Region station ask?
It opens with "Where would you palpate the femoral pulse?" and runs to 20 questions over nine minutes. An anatomy station is marked out of 20, and all 20 marks go to clinical knowledge and its application. No communication, technical-skill or professionalism marks are available in an anatomy bay, which is unusual: in most other stations more than half the marks sit outside your factual knowledge.
How many anatomy stations are there in MRCS Part B?
Three of the seventeen examined stations are surgical anatomy, and two more are surgical pathology. Together they make up the five Anatomy and surgical pathology stations of the Applied Knowledge component.
How are the anatomy stations marked?
Each station is marked out of 20 and all 20 marks are awarded for clinical knowledge and its application. You also receive a separate global rating of pass, borderline or fail for the station.
Are the specimens real?
Yes. Anatomy bays use prosected cadaveric specimens, models and images. Candidates report being shown photographs of specimens as well as the specimens themselves, so practise on real dissection photography rather than diagrams alone.
What happens if I get an early question wrong?
The intercollegiate guidance says that if a wrong answer would affect your performance on later questions at the same station, the examiner gives you the correct answer before moving on. One mistake does not have to cost you the whole bay.
How many stations are in the MRCS Part B OSCE?
Seventeen examined stations of nine minutes each, with a minute to read the task before each one. Two preparation stations and at least one rest station bring the circuit to about twenty, and the exam takes about three and a half hours.
What is the pass mark for MRCS Part B?
There is no published pass mark. The cut score is set separately for Applied Knowledge and Applied Skills, for each circuit, by borderline regression. Published pass rates across the 2024/25 diets ranged from 51% to 66%.
Can I fail a station and still pass?
Yes. There is no rule about how many stations you may fail: the cut score applies to your total mark in each component, so a weak station costs the marks you lost on it and strong stations elsewhere can make them back. Applied Knowledge and Applied Skills are passed separately and must both be passed at the same sitting, so a strong anatomy performance cannot rescue a weak communication one.
Dr Richard Miller, MBChB FRCS
Station summaries are reviewed against the current intercollegiate MRCS syllabus and the published marking blueprint. Guidance changes between diets: check the royal colleges' own pages before relying on a date, a fee or a threshold.
Practise this station
The question bank carries the model answer to every question above, with the rest of the anatomy stations.
More anatomy stations