Validity of the Fast Scan for Diagnosis of Intra-Abdominal Injury in Blunt Abdominal Trauma

Objective: To determine the validity of FAST scans in the diagnosis of bluntabdominal trauma in keeping with findings on CT scan and laparotomy. Methodology: This study was carried out at Department of Accident and Emergency, Minia University Hospital, from August 2017 to August 2019. 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 bluntabdominal trauma. Results: Our study included 150 patients with suspected blunt abdominal trauma who underwent CT abdomen or exploratory laparotomy or both CT abdomen and exploratory laparotomy. The mean age was 32.3±14.4 years. Forty-four patients (29.3%) were hemodynamically unstable and 106 (70.7%) were hemodynamically stable. Conclusion: FAST scan has good diagnostic accuracy. It can beroutinely 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.