Diagnostic Accuracy of Focused Assessment with Sonography for Blunt Abdominal Trauma in Pediatric Patients Performed by Emergency Medicine Residents versus Radiology Residents.

Introduction: Focused assessment with sonography for trauma (FAST) has been shown to be useful to detect intraperitoneal free fluid in patients with blunt abdominal trauma (BAT).

Objective: We compared the diagnostic accuracy of FAST performed by emergency medicine residents (EMRs) and radiology residents (RRs) in pediatric patients with BAT.

Method: In this prospective study, pediatric patients with BAT and high energy trauma who were referred to the emergency department (ED) at Al-Zahra and Kashani hospitals in Isfahan, Iran, were evaluated using FAST, first by EMRs and subsequently by RRs. The reports provided by the two resident groups were compared with the final outcome based on the results of the abdominal computed tomography (CT), operative exploration, and clinical observation.

Results: A total of 101 patients with a median age of 6.75 ± 3.2 years were enrolled in the study between January 2013 and May 2014. These patients were evaluated using FAST, first by EMRs and subsequently by RRs. A good diagnostic agreement was noted between the results of the FAST scans performed by EMRs and RRs (κ = 0.865, P < 0.001). The sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values, and accuracy in evaluating the intraperitoneal free fluid were 72.2%, 85.5%, 52%, 93.3%, and 83.2%, respectively, when FAST was performed by EMRs and 72.2%, 86.7%, 54.2%, 93.5%, and 84.2%, respectively, when FAST was performed by RRs. No significant differences were seen between the EMR- and RR-performed FAST.

Conclusion: In this study, FAST performed by EMRs had acceptable diagnostic value, similar to that performed by RRs, in patients with BAT.