ABSTRACT

Objective: The active use of ultrasound has become widespread in the pre-hospital setting for the last two decades. Because of its convenience, portability, and lack of radiation, ultrasound is extremely useful in the diagnosis of life-threatening conditions in trauma patients in the prehospital setting. For trauma patients, an ultrasound protocol, called Prehospital Focused Abdominal Sonography for Trauma, has been developed. The effective use of this protocol by paramedics has become the center of various studies in the literature. The purpose of this study is to determine whether paramedics can use an ultrasound device to successfully acquire the images of the Prehospital Focused Abdominal Sonography for Trauma protocol on a live model.

Material and Methods: The initial application of theoretical and practical training on the Prehospital Focused Abdominal Sonography for Trauma protocol for paramedics was followed by a practical examination performed on live models. Thirty-eight paramedics working in land ambulances of 112 Emergency Health Services in Sivas were given 16 hours of theoretical and practical training on the P-FAST protocol. In practical training, images of the P-FAST protocol were acquired by a portable ultrasonic device with convex and linear probes on healthy live models. At the end of the training, the paramedics were given a practical exam on the live model with a portable ultrasound device.

Results: All participants (38) were able to acquire all five images, but some were not at the desired angles or at the appropriate gain and depth. The number of paramedics who achieved complete success in the study was 26 (68.4%).

Conclusion: Following the two-day training, 68.4 % of the participants correctly acquired and assessed the images.

Keywords: Pre-hospital, trauma, ultrasound