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Focused Assessment with Sonography for Trauma (FAST) Exam: Image Acquisition
07:18

Focused Assessment with Sonography for Trauma (FAST) Exam: Image Acquisition

Published on: September 22, 2023

Utility of the cardiac component of FAST in blunt trauma

Gregory M Press1, Sara Miller

  • 1Department of Emergency Medicine, University of Texas at Houston Medical School, and Memorial Hermann Hospital, Houston, Texas 77030, USA.

The Journal of Emergency Medicine
|July 7, 2012
PubMed

Insights

Blunt hemopericardium is rare in trauma patients, occurring in only 0.06% of cases. High-acuity indicators like major injury mechanisms, hypotension, or emergent intubation may help guide the selective use of cardiac ultrasound in blunt trauma.

Area of Science:

  • Emergency Medicine
  • Trauma Surgery
  • Diagnostic Imaging

Background:

  • Focused assessment with sonography in trauma (FAST) is standard, but cardiac sonography's role in blunt trauma lacks evidence.
  • Routine cardiac ultrasound in FAST may not be necessary for all blunt trauma patients.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To determine the prevalence of hemopericardium in blunt trauma.
  • To assess the sensitivity of specific clinical variables for detecting blunt hemopericardium.

Main Methods:

  • Retrospective review of trauma registry and emergency ultrasound databases.
  • Analysis of 29,236 blunt trauma patients over 8.5 years.
  • Evaluation of major mechanism of injury, hypotension, and emergent intubation as predictors.

Main Results:

  • Blunt hemopericardium and cardiac rupture occurred in 0.06% of blunt trauma patients.
  • Incidental effusions were more common (0.13%).
  • No cases of blunt hemopericardium or rupture occurred without major injury, hypotension, or intubation.

Conclusions:

  • Blunt hemopericardium is a rare finding in blunt trauma.
  • High-acuity clinical variables can potentially guide selective echocardiography use in blunt trauma assessment.
Abstract

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