Table 1. Patient Characteristics.
| No. (%) of Patients | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| FAST Examination (n = 460) |
Standard Care Only (n = 465) |
Eligible but Not Enrolled (n = 325) |
|
| Age, mean (SD), y | 9.7 (5.3) | 9.7 (5.3) | 9.5 (5.8) |
| Male sex | 286 (62) | 289 (62) | 201 (62) |
| Mechanism of injury | |||
| MVC | 139 (30) | 138 (30) | 90 (28) |
| Motorcycle | 33 (7) | 41 (9) | 15 (5) |
| Fall | 95 (21) | 102 (22) | 99 (30) |
| Auto vs pedestrian or bikea | 98 (21) | 111 (24) | 56 (17) |
| Fall from bike | 29 (6) | 17 (4) | 17 (5) |
| Assault | 12 (3) | 10 (2) | 6 (2) |
| Blow to abdomen | 14 (3) | 5 (1) | 5 (2) |
| Other | 40 (9) | 41 (9) | 37 (11) |
| Initial GCS score, median (IQR), scoreb | 15 (15-15) | 15 (15-15) | |
| Pediatric Trauma Score, median (IQR)c | 11 (10-11) | 10 (10-11) | |
| Abdominal tenderness | 159 (35) | 151 (32) | |
| Physician suspicion of intra-abdominal injury, %d | |||
| <1 | 105 (23) | 129 (28) | |
| 1-5 | 201 (44) | 177 (38) | |
| 6-10 | 95 (21) | 88 (19) | |
| 11-50 | 48 (10) | 65 (14) | |
| >50 | 9 (2) | 4 (1) | |
| Intra-abdominal injurye | 24 (5.2) | 26 (5.6) | 14 (4.3) |
| Intra-abdominal injury with intraperitoneal fluide | 19 (4.1) | 21 (4.5) | 10 (3.1) |
Abbreviations: FAST, focused assessment with sonography for trauma; GCS, Glasgow Coma Scale; IQR, interquartile range; MVC, motor vehicle collision.
a
Patients were struck by an automobile while a pedestrian or bicyclist.
b
Missing for 2 patients. The GCS scores reflect patient mental status and range from 3 to 15 with a score of 3 indicating coma and 15 reflecting normal alertness.
c
Missing for 4 patients. The score reflects the severity of injury and predicts mortality, and ranges from −6 (most severely injured) to 12 (least severely injured).
d
Missing for 4 patients.
e
Intra-abdominal injury and intra-abdominal injury with intraperitoneal fluid were identified by either abdominal CT scan or exploratory laparotomy.