Abstract

The mission of pre-hospital medical service is to provide rapid and high quality life support. The development of specific protocols, the availability of new diagnostic tools have determined a significant improvement of pre-hospital care. The use of ultrasound in the pre-hospital medical service is a new and reliable diagnostic device. Pre-hospital ultrasound must have few and focused indications, in order to match rapidity with effectiveness. The FAST approach is extensively and effectively used worldwide and it is useful for the evaluation of either penetrating or blunt trauma of the chest and the abdomen. Ultrasound has been introduced in the management of cardiac arrest, as assessed in the international guidelines of cardiopulmonary resuscitation. This paper revises the most important indications and the future perspectives of pre-hospital ultrasound.

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