Background: Focused abdominal sonography for trauma (FAST) has been well reported in adults, but its applicability in children is less well established. We decided to test the hypothesis that FAST and computed tomography (CT) are equivalent imaging studies in the setting of pediatric blunt abdominal trauma.
Methods: One hundred seven hemodynamically stable children undergoing CT for blunt abdominal trauma were prospectively investigated using FAST. The ability of FAST to predict injury by detecting free intraperitoneal fluid was compared with CT as the imaging standard.
Results: Thirty-two patients had CT documented injuries. There were no late injuries missed by CT. FAST detected free fluid in 12 patients. Ten patients had solid organ injury but no free fluid and, thus, were not detected by FAST. The sensitivity of FAST relative to CT was only 0.55 and the negative predictive value was only 0.50.
Conclusion: FAST has insufficient sensitivity and negative predictive value to be used as a screening imaging test in hemodynamically stable children with blunt abdominal trauma.