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Thu, 3 Apr 2003 11:43:54 +0300 (IDT)

On Mon, 31 Mar 2003, caesar ursic wrote:

> Sorry, I wasn't aware that you had already discussed
> this particular article.  I must have accidentally
> deleted that post.  But my point is that there is
> little data out there to support using FAST in the
> stable blunt trauma patient.  

There is also very little data to support the use of FAST in diagnosing
gall stones, pregnancy, or alzheimer's disease.  

FAST was not designed to replace CT or diagnostic laparotomy. So why
complain when it does not do what it can't?  

Why would one expect that a one day course on doing FAST will teach one a
technique that radiologists take a life time to master?  Does a 2 day ATLS
course make a trauma expert? 

FAST is relieble for one thing and only one thing: detecting significant
amount of blood/fluid in one or more of its three cardinal points.

In these days of selective operative management, the information FAST
yields (YES/NO to the blood question) is useful only in the unstable
trauma patient.  

We all knew (or shoud have known) that before we read the paper.  

Avi 

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==========================================================================
Aviel Roy-Shapira, M.D.              Soroka University Hospital &
Dept. of Surgery A. and              Ben-Gurion University Medical School 
the Critical Care Unit               POB 151, Beer Sheva, Israel

email:avir@bgumail.bgu.ac.il         Fax:972-7-6403260 voice:972-7-6403390

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