Introduction:

Trauma is the pandemic that every year claims many lives; technological advances have not been able to stop it, but have contributed with the more effective assessment of patients. Ultrasound performed by non-radiologists physicians has become a necessary tool in the assessment of the trauma patient.

Objective:

To describe the knowledge that the general surgeon should acquire to perform ultrasound for assessing trauma.

Methods:

A bibliographic review of the subject was carried out in the PubMed, BVS-BIREME and Cochrane databases. The elements that the general surgeon must know in order to perform ultrasound in the assessment of trauma were described. The search considered all types of studies published from January 1971 to December 2019 and that could be accessed; the internal validity of the evidence was assessed, together with its overall quality. The languages used in the search were English and Spanish.

Development:

Most studies accept ultrasound as an assessment tool in trauma and its systematic use by non-radiologist physicians.

Conclusions:

The basic principles of ultrasound in trauma have to be part of the tools of a general surgeon of the twenty-first century. The most frequent errors are due to lack of systematic use and lack of training. Contraindications of ultrasound in trauma are progressively less frequent, but there is a marked dependence on the person who operates.

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