Focused Assessment with Sonography for Trauma
The term Focused Assessment with Sonography for Trauma (FAST) describes a standardized sonographic examination of the abdomen and pelvis and, in the expansion, also of the chest cavity in severely injured patients in the shock room . The FAST examination is regularly used in the initial phase of the examination of multiple trauma patients .
The aim of the FAST examination of the emergency room patient is to recognize free fluid as a sign of an injury to organs and blood vessels of the abdominal cavity and thus, if necessary, to decide on immediate life-saving operations. Their sensitivity and specificity was almost 100% in prospective studies. Until the mid-1990s, so-called diagnostic peritoneal lavage (rinsing the abdominal cavity) was used to assess free fluid in the abdominal cavity, especially in the Anglo-Saxon catchment area . In the mid-1990s there was still great disagreement as to which method should be preferred. Sonography was only finally able to establish itself in emergency diagnostics at the end of the 1990s and has been an indispensable examination ever since.
Components
- Flank section right: peri- hepatic and hepatoric space ( Morison pouch )
- Flank cross section on the left: peri- splenic and splenorenal space ( Koller pouch )
- Longitudinal and cross-sectional images of the lower abdomen (suprapubic): small pelvis ( Douglas space )
- Upper abdominal cross-sectional image cranially: pericardium
- Para sternal longitudinal section on both sides: search for pneumothorax
literature
- F. Walcher, Th. Kirschning, R. Breitkreutz: Sonography in trauma patients. in: T. Grau (Ed.): Ultrasound in anesthesia and intensive care medicine. Deutscher Ärzte-Verlag, 2009. ISBN 978-3-7691-1264-1
- DR Spahn, V. Cerny, TJ Coats, J. Duranteau, E. Fernández-Mondéjar, G. Gordini, PF Stahel, BJ Hunt, R. Komadina, E. Neugebauer, Y. Ozier, L. Riddez, A. Schultz, JL Vincent, R. Rossaint: Management of bleeding following major trauma: a European guideline. In: Critical care. Volume 11, number 1, 2007, p. R17, doi : 10.1186 / cc5686 , PMID 17298665 , PMC 2151863 (free full text).
