Focused assessment with sonography for trauma

Abstract

During the last decade, focused assessment with sonography for trauma has increasingly become the initial diagnostic modality of choice for trauma patients. Emergency physicians practicing in general hospitals must often quickly evaluate and treat the patient at their hospital. The suspicion of a significant intra-abdominal injury requiring laparotomy greatly influences the decision. Focused assessment with sonography for trauma has become a routine part of the initial evaluation of victims of blunt abdominal trauma. Although it has limited ability to detect specific organ injury, its ability to rapidly and noninvasively assess whether these is intra-abdominal hemorrhage makes it a useful diagnostic tool.