Emergency medicine and intensive care — in the LEK question base
Resuscitation and ERC guidelines, life-threatening emergencies, triage, ventilation and fluid therapy.
- Questions in base
- 276
- Share of base
- 9.0%
- Roughly on the paper
- ~13
The "on the paper" figure assumes the 140 questions drawn from the base are distributed in proportion to its composition. CEM does not publish per-field quotas, so treat it as an order of magnitude rather than a promise.
Required reading — emergency medicine and intensive care
The list CEM publishes for this field. Questions are written from these titles, so where a lecture and a listed textbook disagree, the textbook decides.
They appear here in Polish, exactly as CEM lists them — these are the specific editions that count, and most have no English translation. That is not an oversight on our part; it is the central practical problem of sitting this exam in English.
- 01 V.J. Markovchick, P.T. Pons, K.M. Bakes; J.R. Ładny, M. Wojewódzka-Żelezniakowicz (red.) — Medycyna ratunkowa w pytaniach i odpowiedziach, Medipage, 2016
- 02 Krystyn Sosada, Wojciech Żurawiński (red.) — Ostre stany zagrożenia życia w obrażeniach ciała, PZWL, 2018
- 03 Krystyn Sosada (red.) — Ostre stany zagrożenia życia w chorobach wewnętrznych, PZWL, 2016
- 04 Janusz Andres (red.) — Wytyczne resuscytacji 2021, Polska Rada Resuscytacji, 2022
Source: the CEM reading list . As at August 2026 — check before your session in case CEM has revised it.
Sample questions from the base
Ten items from CEM's public listing for this field, in the official English wording used on the exam paper. The correct answer is highlighted. Detailed explanations live in our Polish application (source of preparation).
When is the tourniquet used?
- A to help as many victims of a catastrophe as possible.
- B in traumatic amputation injuries.
- C when other methods to stop bleeding failed.
- D A,B,C are correct. ✓
- E A,B are correct.
Indicate the true statement on positive end-expiratory pressure (PEEP) ventilation: 1) all neonates requiring postnatal ventilation must receive PEEP; 2) improves lung aeration, lung compliance and gas exchange; 3) reduces the need to use higher concentrations of oxygen in the breathing mixture. The correct answer is:
- A 2,3.
- B 1,2.
- C 1,3.
- D none of the above.
- E all the above. ✓
According to the guidelines of the European Resuscitation Council (2015) the target temperature of the patient under post-resuscitation care is:
- A 37°C.
- B 36°C. ✓
- C 35°C.
- D 34°C.
- E 33°C.
According to the European Resuscitation Council Guidelines 2015 the breaks for ventilation during CPR should not be longer than:
- A 5 seconds.
- B 10 seconds. ✓
- C 15 seconds.
- D 20 seconds.
- E 30 seconds.
Which of the following should be given to a patient with hyperkalemia at the level of 7 mmol/l, if the ECG shows toxic influence of potassium on the heart muscle?
- A 30 ml of 10% calcium gluconate iv. ✓
- B 30 ml of 10% calcium chlorate iv.
- C 6 mg of adenosine iv.
- D 500 ml of isotonic electrolyte solution iv.
- E 2 g of magnesium sulfate.
The Glasgow-Blatchford scale refers to patients with:
- A acute pancreatitis.
- B head trauma.
- C community-acquired pneumonia.
- D gastrointestinal bleeding. ✓
- E septic shock.
The most common cause of septic shock in Poland are:
- A fungi.
- B adenoviruses.
- C rotaviruses.
- D Gram-negative bacteria. ✓
- E Gram-positive bacteria.
Which of the following is not recommended in the management of a patient with irregular narrow QRS-complex tachyarrhythmia (without symptoms of heart failure):
- A pharmacological slowing of the rhythm.
- B vagal nerve stimulation. ✓
- C pharmacological cardioversion.
- D electrical cardioversion.
- E prophylactic treatment against complications (e.g. anticoagulation).
The total dose of N-acetylcysteine used intravenously in paracetamol intoxication amounts to:
- A 100 mg/kg b.w.
- B 150 mg/kg b.w.
- C 200 mg/kg b.w.
- D 250 mg/kg b.w.
- E 300 mg/kg b.w. ✓
If the victim of drowning survives 24 hours after the accident, than it is referred to as:
- A immersion syndrome.
- B asphyxia.
- C near drowning. ✓
- D dry drowning.
- E incomplete drowning.
Full listing for this field contains 276 questions — these ten are a preview. Detailed rationales, spaced-repetition scheduling and citations are in the Polish app (English coverage is in progress).
How to get through this field
276 questions is a finite, countable set — at twenty a day you are through it in 14 days. The difficulty is not the volume. It is that the CEM listing gives you the questions and nothing else: no answer key, no explanation and no indication which of the books above the answer came from.
In our bank every question in this field carries an explanation and a citation to its source. Instead of memorising a letter you see why the other four options are wrong — and that is the part which transfers to the 60 unpublished questions you cannot prepare for in advance. The English edition is in progress; these pages come first.