I've wanted to discuss tips and pitfalls for the FAST exam for a while now, but I needed a master to talk with. Luckily at Castlefest, I met Laleh Gharahbaghian, MD. She is the Ultrasound Director at Stanford's Dept. of Emergency Medicine as well as being too cool for school. She is also FOAMY with what I think is the best blog on all things point-of-care ultrasound: sonospot.com.

Sonospot Posts on the FAST

I was going to write up comprehensive show notes for this episode, but thankfully Laleh published a post that encompasses EVERYTHING we we spoke about. So go read the ultimate blogpost on the FAST exam.

The Right-Upper Quadrant

* SonoTutorial: The FAST Part 1: The right upper quadrant – the right way to do it

* SonoTutorial: The FAST Part 1a: The Right Upper Quadrant: Images That Could Fool You

* SonoTutorial: The FAST Part 1b: The Right Upper Quadrant: More images that could fool you

* Optimizing RUQ images

Update: Here is the article on Trendelenburg for Optimal RUQ (Am J Emerg Med 1999;17(2):118)

The Left-Upper Quadrant

* The FAST Part 2: Left Upper Quadrant

* SonoTutorial: The FAST Part 2a: Left Upper Quadrant – Images that could fool you…

* SonoTutorial: The FAST Part 2b: Left Upper Quadrant – More images that could fool you

The Pelvic View

* Sonospot will have a post on this coming up soon

The Heart

* SonoTips & Tricks: The FAST scan: The Cardiac views #FOAMed

* SonoTip&Trick: “I can’t tell if it’s a pleural or pericardial effusion.” Really? well here’s a tip

Pneumothorax

Laleh's post on a large pneumothorax trial

FAST is Specific for IntraABD Hemorrhage

J Trauma 2020;90(1):137

Why do we mess up the exam?

Laselle et al. published on why false-negative FASTs occurred [Ann Emerg Med 2012;60:326]. See this wonderful post from the Sonospot blog on the Laselle article and fals...