Interobserver Agreement on Focused Assessment with Sonography for Trauma in Blunt Abdominal Injury

Introduction Trauma constitutes a major public health problem. Ninty percent of world's fatalities on road occur in low and middle-income countries. Focused assessment with sonography in trauma (FAST) has a key role in trauma investigation, altering subsequent management in a significant number of patients. There is a rising trend of introducing FAST examination to non-radiologists and junior members of healthcare team to hasten triage of trauma patients. Objective To determine interobserver agreement on focused assessment with sonography for trauma in blunt abdominal injury between senior and junior residents. Methods This cross-sectional study was conducted at Aga Khan University Hospital. Three hundred patients with blunt abdominal trauma meeting inclusion criteria were enrolled. FAST was performed using standard curvilinear 3.5-5 MHz transducer. Agreement between junior and senior residents was measured and Kappa statistic was calculated. Results Mean age of the patients included in the study was 30.04 ± 18.09 years. Among these 237 (79%) were male and 63 (21%) were female. Sixteen (5.3%) were positive for intraperitoneal free fluid while the remaining 284 (94.7%) were negative. A total of 19 FAST examinations were reported positive by junior residents, of which 15 (78.9%) were confirmed by a senior resident to be correct, while four (21.05%) were falsely labeled positive by a junior resident. A total of 281 negative FAST examinations were reported by junior residents, of which 280 (99.6%) were confirmed by a senior resident, while only one (0.003%) was falsely labeled negative. Kappa statistic was calculated for inter-observer agreement on FAST examination findings, which showed a kappa value of 0.84 (very good agreement), with a p-value of <0.001. Conclusion Our study suggests very good interobserver agreement on FAST examination between senior and junior resident in patients with blunt trauma to the abdomen. Results suggest that FAST can be easily learnt with minimal radiology training and may have greater applicability in trauma.