Hospital survey of point-of-care lung ultrasound use in the assessment of peri-operative and critically ill patients

Excerpt

Point-of-care lung ultrasonography is emerging as a valuable tool in critical care medicine. Advantages include rapid assessment of respiratory disease, which may be repeated and which does not expose patients or staff to ionizing radiation. This tool also avoids the need to transfer unstable patients to imaging departments and provides real-time assessment of organ function [1]. Certain applications, including detection of a pneumothorax or pleural effusion [2, 3] and the improved safety of pleural drainage [4], are well established. Despite this, adoption by Australian clinicians into clinical practice has been slow. To determine the reasons for this, we surveyed 120 anesthesia, emergency, intensive care, and internal medicine consultants at the Royal Melbourne Hospital on their knowledge and practice of point-of-care ultrasound. Approval for this study was obtained from the local Human Research Ethics Committee. …