Journal of the American College of Surgeons
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The Focused Assessment Sonography in Trauma (FAST) examination is the standard of care for detecting hemoperitoneum in hypotensive blunt trauma patients. A pilot study demonstrated earlier identification of intra-abdominal fluid via FAST after right-sided roll (FASTeR) when compared with the standard FAST. The purpose of this study was to evaluate this phenomenon prospectively in hypotensive blunt trauma patients. ⋯ Addition of a right upper quadrant view after right-sided roll does improve the sensitivity of the FAST examination while maintaining the standard positive predictive value. We demonstrate a trend that does not reach statistical significance about the overall accuracy. This multicenter prospective trial was underpowered to reveal a statistically significant difference in the overall accuracy as measured by the receiver operating characteristics area under the curve.