• Joseph J Osterwalder.
• Zentrale Notfallaufnahme, Kantonsspital St. Gallen. joseph.osterwalder@kssg.ch
• Praxis (Bern 1994). 2010 Dec 15;99(25):1545-9.

AbstractFor many years, the FAST examination has represented the standard procedure for diagnostics in traumatology. Until just recently, the ultrasound societies in German speaking countries did not recognize this procedure, which is the reason why it has not been included in current educational programs. The acronym FAST stands for «Focused Assessment with Sonography for Trauma» and is defined as the sonographic detection of free fluid in the intraperitoneal, pleural and pericardial spaces in patients who have suffered blunt or penetrating trauma. The extension to eFAST («extended FAST») in the year 2004 to include the additional diagnosis of pneumothorax marked the beginning of the procedure's meteoric development. Nowadays, everybody is talking about FAST-plus in reference to a broad range of applications within the field of airway management, organ injury diagnostics, cerebral hypertension as well as support for invasive procedures. However, the continued rise of FAST will depend on the future role that computed tomography (CT) will be playing. Indeed, it remains unclear whether CT utilized as FACTT («Focused Assessment with Computed Tomography in Trauma») will force out FAST and advance to become the diagnostic gold standard.

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