The average orthopaedic trainee about to sit the FRCS (Tr & Orth) exam requires a basic knowledge of genetics.

This doesn’t need to be encyclopaedic, but candidates will need to have a sound grasp of disease inheritance and genetic disorders. Trainees should be able to draw a family pedigree of single gene inheritance and know the gene mutations of the more common orthopaedic conditions.

By comparison, mention genetic viva questions to any examiner and you get a slightly puzzled look back. Safe to say, it is not a major A-list topic for the vivas and probably doesn’t even make the B-list. However, the subject does intermittently appear in the vivas and therefore it is definitely worthwhile knowing how the questions will run in order to uncomplicate a potentially complicated topic.