Consequencies of therapeutic decision-making based on FAST results in trauma patients with pelvic fracture

FAST is essential to decide whether trauma patients need laparotomy, but it has a notable decrease in accuracy in patients with pelvic fracture. Our objective is to analyze the consequences of therapeutic decision-making based on the FAST results in trauma patients with pelvic fracture.

Descriptive study that includes trauma patients older than 16 with a pelvic fracture admitted to the critical care area or who died. The FAST result was compared with a true positive or negative value according to the results of laparotomy or abdominal CT. We recorded diagnosis and treatment of each injury and resolution of the case, detailing the cause of death, among all variables.

Over the 13-year period, we included 263 trauma patients with pelvic fracture, with a mean ISS of 31 and mortality of 19%. FAST had a sensitivity of 65.2%, specificity of 69%, false negative rate of 34.8% and false positive rate of 30.9%. Hemodynamically unstable patients died twice as many stable patients (27% vs 14%, P < .05). Patients with positive FAST died more than negative FAST (43% vs 26%); and 4 out of 10 hemodynamically unstable patients who underwent non-therapeutic laparotomy after presenting a false positive FAST died from hypovolemic shock. The mortality rate fell from 60% to 20% when preperitoneal packing was performed before angio-embolization of the pelvis.

FAST has low accuracy in polytraumatized patients with pelvic fracture. Patients with false positive FAST have higher mortality, which can be reduced notably by applying preperitoneal packing.