Abstract:
Objective: To determine the validity of FAST scans in the diagnosis of blunt abdominal trauma in keeping with findings on CT scan as the gold standard. Methodology: This study was carried out at Department of Accident and Emergency,
Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences, Islamabad from October 2012 to December 2013. FAST scan was performed as part of the primary or secondary survey of the trauma patient in the emergency department in all patients with suspected blunt
abdominal trauma. All of them also underwent CT scan. The validity of FAST scan in comparison to CT scan was documented. Results: Our study included 88 patients with suspected blunt abdominal trauma who underwent CT abdomen±exploratory laparotomy. The mean age was 36.68±14.3 years. It included 65 (73.9%) males and 23 (26.1%) females. 69 (78.4%) cases
presented due to road traffic accidents, 17 (19.3%) due to falls and 2 (2.3%) cases were the result of violence. Twenty-six patients (29.5%) were hemodynamically unstable. 54 (61.4%) had a positive FAST scan and 56 (63.6%) had positive CT scan.
The fast scan had a sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value and negative predictive value of 92.8%, 93.75%, 96.3% and 88.2% respectively, in our study. The overall diagnostic accuracy of the FAST scan was 93.2%. Conclusion: FAST scan has good diagnostic accuracy as compared to CT scan which is comparable to previously published local and international data. It can be
routinely utilized to triage the blunt abdominal trauma patients for laparotomy, however, a multi-institutional research study in our setup is required to further validate the findings of our study.
Page(s):
124-129
DOI:
DOI not available
Published:
Journal: Annals of the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences, Volume: 13, Issue: 2, Year: 2017