Context

Ultrasound has been used in the early assessment of abdominal trauma in countries outside the United Kingdom for the past 30 years. Over the last 15 years, increasing evidence of the utility of the technique has been published, and it is now widely practiced in emergency medicine. [1-5]

Chambers et al (1998) published a report on use of the ultrasound [6] but in the subsequent 15 years there was little other UK-based evidence published.

There is growing interest in ultrasound use by emergency physicians in this country with increasing availability of affordable systems, and various authors having published recent evaluations of the technique by a small group of sonographers among the trauma staff. [7,8]

Point of care Ultrasound competency is a part of the EM curriculum and requires supervisor sign off based on the entrustment scale.