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Prehospital and Emergency Department Ultrasound in Blunt Abdominal Trauma

  • Focus on Ultrasound in Trauma and Emergency Surgery
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Abstract

Blunt abdominal trauma is a challenging aspect of trauma management. Early detection has a major impact on patient outcome. In contrast to physical examination, computed tomography is known to be a sensitive and specific test for blunt abdominal injuries. However, it is time-consuming and thus contraindicated in hemodynamically unstable patients. Therefore, focused assessment with sonography for trauma (FAST) offers a fast and easily applicable screening method to identify patients for urgent laparotomy without any further diagnostics. FAST detects, with high sensitivity, intraperitoneal fluid that accumulates in dependent areas indicating blunt abdominal trauma. FAST has been established as a gold standard early screening method for blunt abdominal trauma when performing trauma management in the emergency department (ED) based on the Advanced Trauma Life Support® algorithm. The development of hand-held ultrasound devices facilitated the introduction of FAST into prehospital trauma management. It was demonstrated that prehospital FAST (p-FAST) can be performed with high sensitivity and specificity, and can lead to significant changes in prehospital trauma therapy and management. Standardized training with both theoretical and hands-on modules is mandatory in order to gain the skills required to perform FAST or p-FAST well.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Trauma Surgery, Johann Wolfgang Goethe-University, Frankfurt, Germany

    Miriam Ruesseler MD, Ingo Marzi & Felix Walcher

  2. Department of Anesthesiology, Intensive Care Medicine and Pain Therapy, Johann Wolfgang Goethe-University, Frankfurt, Germany

    Thomas Kirschning & Raoul Breitkreutz

  3. Department of Trauma Surgery, Johann Wolfgang Goethe-University, Theodor-Stern-Kai 7, 60590, Frankfurt, Germany

    Miriam Ruesseler MD

Authors
  1. Miriam Ruesseler MD
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  2. Thomas Kirschning
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  3. Raoul Breitkreutz
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  4. Ingo Marzi
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  5. Felix Walcher
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Miriam Ruesseler MD.

Additional information

M. Ruesseler, R. Breitkreutz, T. Kirschning, and F. Walcher belong to the Working Group of Emergency Ultrasound.

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Ruesseler, M., Kirschning, T., Breitkreutz, R. et al. Prehospital and Emergency Department Ultrasound in Blunt Abdominal Trauma. Eur J Trauma Emerg Surg 35, 341–346 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00068-009-9082-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00068-009-9082-4

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