PHTLS Study Guide 2026
Everything you need to pass the PHTLS 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.
PHTLS exam key facts
📋 PHTLS Exam Format at a Glance
📚 PHTLS Topics to Study (59)
✍️ Sample PHTLS Questions & Answers
1. A patient with a cervical spinal cord injury presents with bradycardia and hypotension but warm, dry skin. This pattern is MOST consistent with:
Neurogenic shock from high cervical cord injury causes loss of sympathetic tone, producing hypotension and bradycardia with warm, dry (vasodilated) skin.
2. Which anatomical feature of a child's airway makes intubation more challenging compared to an adult?
In children, the larynx is higher and more anterior, making visualization and intubation technically more difficult.
3. In a child with an isolated closed head injury and increased intracranial pressure, what ventilation rate is recommended to avoid hyperventilation?
Routine hyperventilation is harmful because it causes cerebral vasoconstriction and ischemia; ventilate at normal age-appropriate rates unless herniation is imminent.
4. A prehospital provider arrives at a scene involving a motor vehicle collision with downed power lines across the vehicle. What is the correct initial action?
Downed power lines represent an immediate life threat to responders. The correct action is to stage at a safe distance and request the utility company to de-energize the lines. Appearance alone cannot confirm a line is de-energized — even still lines can be lethal.
5. A 2-year-old trauma patient has a GCS of 9. Using the modified pediatric GCS, what adjustment must be made to the verbal component?
The pediatric modification of the GCS verbal score accounts for age-appropriate vocalizations such as crying, babbling, or words rather than adult verbal responses.
6. In PHTLS, which finding most specifically indicates increased intracranial pressure after head trauma?
Cushing's triad is the classic late sign of herniation due to rising ICP and represents a neurological emergency.
🎯 Free PHTLS Practice Tests
📖 PHTLS Guides & Articles
What Practice Test Geeks adds beyond an AI chat for PHTLS
An AI chatbot can quiz you, but it can't reproduce the exam conditions or keep your record. Here you get:
- A timed, full-length PHTLS mock exam — 50 questions in 60 minutes with a 76% pass mark, modeled on the official exam's question count and time limit, followed by a score report broken down by exam domain.
- A fixed PHTLS question bank: the same test every attempt, so your score is comparable from one try to the next instead of changing with every regenerated quiz.
- Progress saved on your device: completed tests, scores and missed questions stay in My Progress, so you can retake only what you got wrong.
- A printable PHTLS cheat sheet you can print or save as a PDF.
- PHTLS flashcards built from the same question bank.
- Free PHTLS practice tests with the correct answer shown after each question.
How this page was made: written with AI tools and published by Nathan Beja, founder of Practice Test Geeks, who is responsible for its content. Exam facts are checked against the official sources listed below. Not reviewed by a subject-matter expert. Editorial policy
Sources & references
Exam facts on this page (fees, format, dates, passing scores) are checked against these official sources; the date is our last check. Editorial policy